Green Shells
by Technizor
Summary: Koopas. For decades, they have served King Bowser's bidding. They have done all his dirty work. They have gotten killed and murdered by the dozens, and nobody ever gave a second thought about them. And they always took it with a cute, little smile. Until now. (2010)
1. Foreword

Who remembers their favourite childhood activity? For many people of 1990s generation, and for myself, it was the great video games published on Nintendo systems.

The Mario series is one of, if not the most, iconic franchises of video game history. In Spring of 2010, when I was in Grade 8, my class was given a peculiar group assignment: write a short novel. I have no recollection of the exact requirements (such as word count, content), and nor do I remember the mark we got. But I do remember how much fun it was to create this reimagining of a classic Mario game.

We took quite a few liberties with the setting, mainly the World numbering and themes, but it looks to be based a bit off of Super Mario World, with the Koopalings being the World bosses. Please note that this was before the Koopalings were officially disowned by Bowser.

My co-author, Jimmy Zhao, is a pretty cool guy. Through all of his strange quirks, his imagination and sense of humour are the real source of this weird story. Recently, I was going through my documents and I found the finished story. I cleaned up the formatting and text, and sent it over to him for reevaluation. With the approval of the both of us, I will be posting the entirety of the silly fantasy that is our novel project in its full glory.

We sincerely hope you enjoy the writing of two video game enthusiasts and teenagers.

\- Sherman Ying

Posting Schedule:

April 22: Prologue, Chapter 1 - 5

April 29: Chapter 6 - 10

May 6: Chapter 11 - 15

May 13: Chapter 16 - 20, Epilogue


	2. Prologue

"What the _hell_ is that thing?!"

The doctor put on his glasses. The question from the frustrated woman sitting in the sand in front of him puzzled him for a moment, despite his various degrees and diplomas. Then, the answer finally hit him.

"It appears to be your son."

"_WHAT?!_"

The doctor was just as confused as she was. Four months ago, he had assisted her in laying thirty-one eggs into the well dug pit they were staring in at the moment. Now, the new mother, along with him and her husband, came back to watch their children hatch.

However, the happy occasion was ruined by the appearance of a defected baby. Among the thirty of its siblings, a hideous monster child torn the egg it lived in for the past few months into shreds. The doctor had delivered many defected and disabled children, but none as horribly mutated as this one. Instead of a pointed beak that babies use to break out of their eggs, this child's mouth was round with two steaming nostrils, similar to that of an ox. Its mouth was filled with sharp, pointed things, which were never seen in anybody else of their race. It had unusual red hair, which spread like fire from its scalp to its neck. The doctor noticed two tiny horns budding from the inferno of hair, and several more stubs growing out of the back of its shell.

"Don't worry," the doctor recited the speech he was taught to comfort the mothers of defects. "Some children are born missing an arm or an eye. You should be glad that it isn't anything serious."

But even as he said it, the demon-child was biting and clawing at its brothers and sisters in the pit. The doctor reached in and carefully removed the kid. He placed it in its confused mother's arms, where it couldn't do any harm to its siblings. The baby snarled at its mom and bared its teeth. Its father scratched his head.

"Come on, honey," the father said. "I'm sure that underneath that hideous shell he is really just a normal little boy. Right doctor?"

"Uh… yeah… right," the doctor was quickly packing up his equipment to leave. He wasn't sure why, but he just wanted to get as far away from the child as possible.

The father remained optimistic. He carefully took the baby from his wife. "How about we give him a name that reflects his… unique personality. How about we call him… Bowser."

Bowser bit his father's hand.


	3. Chapter 1

Mace vomited. It gathered into a puddle at the bottom of the pipe he was guarding.

He stared at it. In a way, he was sort of glad he just barfed. It killed time.

For what seemed like the five hundredth time that day (actually, it was the seven hundred and eighth), Mace exercised his memory by recalling everything he still remembered from school. This kept him from going insane.

The green Koopa Troopa walked to the second green pipe in the area he was responsible for, and sat down in a heap. Mace wiped his beak and looked up. Thick clouds were scattered around the sky. The sunlight torched the atmosphere and the desert around him. Mace wondered if his shell was hot enough to give someone a third degree burn. He groaned. Boredom had eaten most of his mind months ago.

First things first. What was his name? Oh yeah, Rydan the Third. Named after his father, who in turn was named after his grandfather. Mace's grandfather that is, not his father's grandfather. Which would be Mace's great-grandfather. Anyways, where was he? Oh... right. His name. He had gotten the name "Mace," from doing one thing or another during military training, but he couldn't recall what.

Training. That word floated around Mace's head for a moment. What exactly did he do in training? It must had been to help him fight in the Koopa army or something, but he couldn't imagine how he trained to guard the same fifty square metres of sand every single moment of every single day.

Then a thought struck him. If he was fighting in a war then who was he fighting for? He strained his brain to remember what his old teacher used to tell him. They had a king. Who was that guy? Bow-something. Bowie? Bow Wow? Oh well, it wasn't important. He remembered his teacher forcing those graphic descriptions of how the king destroyed all those who got in his way, and decided that it didn't really matter what his name was.

What else did he learn in his elementary years? Whoever the king was, he had become king over the Koopas entirely by force and terrorism. He grew to amazing sizes, almost three times as large as the others. With every part of his body a sharp lethal weapon, he could easily kill anyone of his humble race. That was how the king took over. By spreading fear of death and injury, he managed to enslave the entire Koopa race.

Wait. Koopa? The word had been bouncing around his brain, but he when he thought about it he realized he didn't know what it meant. What's a Koopa? Oh that's right. He was a Koopa. The Koopas were originally a small tortoise like animal called Shellcreepers that were considered pests to the people that lived there before. They were often exterminated because they crawled around through their plumbing. Then one day, the people that exterminated them all moved out of the area, leaving only the Koopas. They evolved into intelligent, kind and gentle creatures that refused to harm another living thing, unlike when they were killed off before. They didn't even need to build houses. The original homes whose owners they terrorized were so ruined, that now most that remains of them are the green metal pipes.

Mace looked up to the green pipe where he had vomited. The puddle had mostly evaporated, leaving only a mess of stained sand, which he was sure would eventually disappear. He looked around his environment. He was guarding a desert. His assigned station was between two pipes, though he couldn't at the time remember who the one that assigned him this station was. Whoever it was, he told him that he was never allowed to cross the boundaries. Occasionally, a piranha plant stuck its head out of the pipe he was currently leaning against, but it usually just shot back down as soon as it came out. Between the two pipes, there was a boulder and what looked to be a cactus growing out of a small patch of grass. Sometimes, he sat on the boulder. He had tried to sit on the cactus, but it was too sharp. From time to time, he still tried to sit on the cactus, despite knowing that it would hurt, just so he could have something to do.

Mace stared up at the sky again. He sighed.

What was his name? Oh yeah…


	4. Chapter 2

_Lucky you_, Otto thought to himself. Of all the eight worlds, you just had to get sent to good ol' World Two.

Otto had wanted to be sent to a station in World Six. While he had never seen it, he had heard that of all the Eight Worlds, World Six was the best. He was told that World Six had a never-ending winter, which allowed for various forms of recreation, such as skating, snowman building, tobogganing, curling, and even hockey. Otto was smarter than that, however. It wasn't a ski resort. World Six was actually a frozen wasteland of a World, where no plants ever grew, and the lakes and rivers had frozen solid. Many Koopas died of the cold there every day, but Bowser just kept bringing in more and more to take their places.

Still, it was much better than the sight that now graced Otto's eyes. World Two was completely desert. As far as he could see, sand made up this entire scene. Well, sand and the ruins of various houses.

"Lovely place, huh?"

His driver kept his eyes on the road. Otto was sitting in a hard wooden wagon, with no seats. Two snarling Goombas were pulling it, with an old bearded Koopa holding their reins. "You know, I used to have a station around here too. Yeah, when I was your age, my gang owned this place." Otto smiled but wasn't really paying any attention. The old man never owned this place, of course. Seven of the eight worlds were looked after by one of Bowser's children. Bowser made each of his children a General of one of the Worlds. Their job was to give commands to every Troopa that was sent there. They were also supposed to take on the enemy if they manage to get through the barrage of Troopas. Their reputation got them nicknamed the "Bosses" by many Troopas. World Two's Boss was Bowser's second youngest: the fat, stupid brat that was Morton Koopa. Otto hated him, almost as much as he hated the King Koopa himself.

Despite their high ranks, Otto doubt the Bosses knew anymore about Bowser's plans than he did. Since he made himself King of the Koopas, Bowser had started this system of Koopas being sent to "defend," various parts of his Kingdom. Every newborn baby was forced into military academy, which was really more a laboratory than a school. The baby Koopas were genetically mutated to kill, even when they didn't want to. Bowser's scientists extracted juices from the deadly poison mushroom and somehow injected it into the skin on the children. This made it dangerous for anyone to hold, or touch, their hands.

Otto was given extra training. After examining his physical abilities, he was given the prestigious title of "Hammer Brother." He was basically just a normal Troopa, but he was able to jump higher, and carry the weight of metal hammers. He was supposed to stay in the same spot throwing hammers at threats to Bowser's Kingdom. Otto was leaning up against a lumpy sack, full of his ammunition. In training, his instructors always told him how an honor it was to be a Hammer Bro. Apparently, he was considered to be bolder than the other Troopas. He was taught never to retreat into his shell, or move from his spot. He thought it was all just a load of Chain Chomp crap, but he didn't want to hurt his reputation. Now that military academy was over, Otto realized it didn't really matter.

"Well, here we are."

Otto looked up in surprise. His new station for the rest of his life was on a brick of a half-disintegrated wall amidst the desert sands. _Nothing special here,_ thought Otto. _Just an ordinary Hammer Brother station, just like the ones in the other worlds. _

The two mutant mushrooms grounded into a halt. Otto lugged his hammer bag out of the wagon, and dragged it up the steps to the spot where he was supposed to stand. He plucked out a hammer, and tossed it and caught it to get a feel of its weight. Hammer Brothers were told to keep one hammer in their hand at all times, until they threw it at an attacking enemy, so Otto assumed that he would be holding this one for a long, long time.

The driver noticed Otto's discontentment.

"Hey kid, if you get bored, you can talk to that guy over there. He's insane, or something, though," the driver pointed to a green pipe behind the wall that Otto was standing on. Otto leaned over to see past the top part of the wall. At first he didn't see anything, but then he noticed a foot sticking past the pipe. The Koopa it belonged to might have been unconscious at the moment as he did nothing to imply that he noticed the wagon.

"That guy's been here before you were drafted," the driver continued. "He's a little fragile in the mind, but he's okay as company." With that the driver lashed his reins. The fanged Goombas shrieked and turned the wagon around. They pulled it through the sand until they disappeared into the distance.

Otto put his helmet on.


	5. Chapter 3

Mace vomited. It gathered into a puddle at the bottom of the pipe he was guarding. He stared at it. In a way, he was sort of glad he just barfed. It killed time.

For what seemed like the two thousandth time that day (actually, it was the nine thousand and first), Mace exercised his memory by recalling everything he still remembered from school. This kept him from going insane.

Mace was about to check up on the movements of the clouds, when he heard a sound coming from directly above him. Mace gave a brief scream and jumped up. He hadn't heard noise for weeks.

Mace walked back cautiously from the pipe. Whatever it was, it sounded like a heavy metal object knocking on stone. Now more confused than frightened, Mace walked closer to the pipe, and looked up. Suddenly, he realized the knocking stopped. More suddenly, he realized a hammer was flying towards him out of the sky. Mace didn't move.

The hammer actually landed in the sand next to him. Mace stared at it in bewilderment. He had forgotten what consisted as a hazard to his well-being, and realized he probably didn't act the correct way.

The person who the hammer belonged to poked his head out from the other side of the pipe. To Mace, the Koopa looked almost like a child. Mace realized that he was probably a new Troopa that had just came to a station near his.

"Wait a minute," he thought aloud. "Wasn't there supposed to be a new Troopa arriving today? A Hamlet Brother, or something like that?" Mace couldn't remember. He hadn't actually heard about any new arrivals, but he assumed there probably was. After all, the evidence was staring at him awkwardly right now.

"Hey... um... sorry about that. You aren't hurt are you?"

Mace managed to nod. He had almost forgotten what speech sounded like. Then he remembered how to make speech himself.

"I... am Rydan," his father had told him to always tell people your real name first. Right after he was born, and right before he was taken away to join the military. "Most of the people I... have known call me Mace."

The other Koopa smiled in a slightly pitiful manner. "My name's Otto. I'm a Hammer Brother. Could you pass me that hammer please?"

Mace looked at the hammer. Then he looked back at Otto. Then at the hammer. Mace reluctantly walked up to the hammer, bent over it and picked it up. He felt it in his grip, having never held a hammer before. He walked to Otto and placed it in his hand.

"Thanks," Otto said. "You've been here for a long time, haven't you?"

Mace made himself nod. Then, Mace fainted, overwhelmed by all the changes that had just came to his environment.


	6. Chapter 4

Otto's arrival completely changed Mace's life.

No longer did the seconds drag by with nothing to grab Mace's attention or interest. Now, Mace was able to retain the social skills and friendliness that had helped Mace in the past. By now, a few months later, they had become close friends. Even though they were very different, they both agreed on one thing: they didn't like the way the Koopa Kingdom was ruled over by Bowser.

"How come Bowser's children always get the highest ranks? They haven't been around for as long as some of the older Koopas who deserve to be promoted. They haven't earned their positions," grumbled Mace. He had been slowly regaining his sanity in the months since Otto's arrival.

"Yeah. You're right about that! We normal Koopas have no say in anything at all. It's time someone stood up to those Koopalings! Even their name implies that normal Koopa Troopas should have more rights and freedoms then now. Well, if I were in charge, I would at least tell my soldiers why I'm sending them to these stupid stations for the rest of their lives!" Otto ranted angrily.

"You said it, buddy!"

* * *

Furaido took flight. The Paratroopa, part of the air force of the Koopa King's army, rose above the clouds of World Two on his patrol of the area. For most of his patrol, he saw nothing but white sand, brown sand, and golden sand in the desert.

Then, he recognized a familiar face.

"Hey Otto! It's me, Furaido!" Furaido circled his old friend. Otto looked up in confusion, but then cracked a smile when he saw his old bunk-mate.

"Furaido! Is that really you? I haven't seen you since we left that Hellhole. How did you spot me from way up there, anyway?" Otto asked.

"Oh. I have 20-20 vision. You need good eyesight to become a Paratroopa. And wings." As Furaido descended, he stopped his glide and flapped his white, feathery wings to slow down before he hit the ground.

"Really? Well that's nice, but there really isn't anything to see around here. Most of the other Troopas got positioned near to borders of World Two. There isn't anyone else for miles."

Furaido and Otto both look around at the sea of sand.

"I just came from World Seven." Furaido said. "The Bow-Wow's brat made me escort his Airship back to his castle, but didn't allow me and my gang to get to World Eight. That poor Princess..."

Otto blinked. "Princess? What do you mean? Princess Wendy?"

Furaido looked shocked. "You mean you haven't heard?! No, not Princess Wendy, she doesn't deserve pity for being Bowser's offspring. I'm talking about Princess Peach!"

Otto blinked again. Furaido couldn't have meant the Princess Peach Toadstool, right? Peach Toadstool, ruler of the Mushroom Kingdom? The peaceful Kingdom inhabited by walking toadstools that Bowser had sometimes shown signs of envy? What had happened to the Princess?

Furaido continued impatiently. "Bowser finally revealed his plan! He got all the Bosses to join together on his giant Airship... Fortress... thing and fly over to the Mushroom Kingdom to kidnap Peach! He plans to attack the Mushroom Kingdom and steal their land for himself and his children to live in! The rest of the Koopas would be forced to remain in these Eight Wastelands of Worlds!" Furaido took a breath.

Otto could hardly comprehend what was going on. He guessed that this was what Mace felt when he first came into his life. Then, he remembered Mace.

"Hey, um... Furaido, you should meet my friend Mace. He's a Troopa that has his station right next to mine." Furaido was surprised at how fast the subject changed, but he went with it. "Mace? What, is he some big tough guy, with a leather jacket and boots?"

"Well, not really." Otto chuckled at the thought. "You should see him. But be careful. He's a little... fragile in the head."

* * *

Neither Otto nor Furaido knew that Mace was listening to their conversation. Of course, Mace didn't know either.

Mace was putting all his interest into another change of his environment. He was surprised to find that what appeared to be a round, orange flower with two eyes had sprouted out of the cactus.

What was surprised him even more was that it seemed to be communicating to him.

"Listen Mace... you hate this life don't you?" the fire-flower inquired. "You know, staying in the same spot, under the same heat every day?" Mace nodded. "Then why don't you fight back?"

Mace thought about this. "But I can't. Anyone of the Bosses, and Bowser himself could kill me."

"Yeah, you can't do it by yourself, but think about all the other Troopas and Paratroopas in this World alone, who will gladly join your cause to fight back against the King. Why, right now a Paratroopa named Furaido is talking to your friend Otto about how they'd love to destroy Bowser's Kingdom." A small amount of fire seemed to spark from the fire-flower's eyes as it said this. "Well, I need to go now. Think about what I said." The fire-flower didn't actually go anywhere, but it stopped talking.

Mace pondered about what the flower just said. It was true that it was possible for them to overpower Bowser and the Bosses. All they needed was to somehow convince as many disgruntled Koopas as possible.

His train of thought was interrupted by Otto. "Hey Mace!" Otto said. "Who... who were you talking to just then? I want you to meet my friend-"

"Furaido," Mace finished. He stood up and looked at the two confused faces looking back at him. He smiled. "I have an idea."


	7. Chapter 5

Furaido took flight once more. His job was to visit each and every single Koopa Troopa in World Two and get them to support Mace's plan to overthrow the Bosses and the Koopa King, once and for all, and return the Koopa Kingdom to the way it was supposed to be.

The first station he visited was guarded by a grizzly old red shell Koopa, so old, it seemed that he should have retired years ago.

"So you say that Bowser kidnapped Mushroom Kingdom's princess? I don't think you should be getting so worked up about this mess, because his word is law. I was around when Bowser took over, and we older Koopas couldn't do a thing. Trust me. I saw what happened to the last Koopa to try and resist Bowser's reign. He was deep-fried in that lava fortress Bowser calls a home! You don't want to mess with him. Besides, there's no way you could possibly overthrow both the Bosses and the 'mighty Koopa King'!" he advised.

"Yes, but you called this situation a mess. Which means, you don't like it, either. And, you never specifically said that you opposed our idea. You probably secretly support it, but you're just afraid to show it!" Furaido countered.

"So, what if I do? It's not like you're going to succeed in this hare-brained scheme of yours, am I right?" the old Koopa replied sharply.

"Whatever. I'm going to talk to some Koopas that actually have a brain." Furaido retorted.

"Good luck with that."

"Gee, thanks!" Furaido said sarcastically. With that, he launched himself into the air, racing towards the next station, hoping, above all, that the next Koopa had more courage than that old Koopa.

* * *

"So what then?" Otto asked Mace. They were still in their old stations. They were waiting for Furaido to come back with as many Koopas as possible. "How are we going to transport all those people to World Eight? We can't walk all the way. The distance between Worlds could take months to travel through on foot."

Their plan was simple. They will round up all the Koopas from World Two. Then, they will send a gang of them to World One and convince as many of them to join as well. Then, they will travel from World to World, getting more and more recruits for their army, and try to avoid the Bosses, but will attack if they need to. Once they go to World Eight, they will rescue the Princess, and assassinate Bowser. They will bring Princess Peach back, and hope that the Mushroom Kingdom would be grateful of them and help them rebuild their old lives before Bowser took charge.

Mace closed his eyes. "Bowser's Airship Fortress is currently flying over World Three on patrol. Every Boss has a cannon at the top of their Castle, which they use to travel from World to World. We could send a couple people through the cannon to World Three and hijack the Airship Fortress. It should be big enough to fit enough Koopas, even the ones from World Four."

Otto smiled. World Four was where all the biggest of the Koopas were sent. "How do you know all this information?"

Mace shrugged.

* * *

Furaido had finally finished persuading the rest of the Koopa Troopas in World Two, and was exhausted. It had taken him exactly 29 hours and 24 minutes to complete his job. Otto let him sleep for a while before the Koopas that Furaido talked to got to Otto's station.

When they came, Otto and Mace's jaws dropped.

An army of eight hundred something Troopas shook the ground as they marched. Some held hammers, some held boulders. A few were holding the leashes of Goombas.

Even though they were taken by surprise at the success of their cause, the trio of rebel leaders launched their summary of the events leading up to this gathering.

"And that is why we, the Koopa Troopas MUST unite to take down our common enemy!" Otto declared.

"We cannot suffer at the hands of the Koopa King and the Bosses any longer!" Mace advocated.

"We must stop Bowser! This entire World has already been recruited for this cause! We need to go to World One to get their help! We still need more Koopas before we can overthrow the King Koopa!" Furaido announced.

"NO!"

Every pair of eyes turned. From somewhere in the crowd, a badly wounded Koopa Troopa weakly crawls up, to the three. Behind him were a few other Troopas, who Furaido recognized to be most of the people that turned him down and refused to leave their stations. The old man was there, looking worried.

"You can't... you can't go to World One," the battered veteran gasped. "The... Mushroom Kingdom... they sent an Italian mercenary to save Peach. His name is M... m-Mario. He is slaughtering Koopas everywhere and using their shells as bowls for his disgusting diet."

"Just one person? He can't be that dangerous," contested Otto, skeptical.

The Koopa started laughing. He seemed maniacal from what he saw. "You don't believe me? Well, you want to know something?" The Koopa was now whispering in a menacing tone.

"What are you talking about?" asked Mace.

"I used to be a Paratroopa!" the Koopa revealed.

With that, he collapsed, dead.

The crowd was silent.


	8. Chapter 6

"We must work fast," Mace said to Otto.

They were currently at World Two's Castle's door, where the Boss Morton lived. They were planning to break in and climb up to the top of the Castle, where the cannon was. Furaido stayed back with the army. "If what the mutilated Paratroopa said was true, then we won't have a lot of time before Mario gets here." Mace was enjoying the role of leader.

Otto looked up at the Castle. From where he was standing it seemed infinitely tall and threatening. It was built entirely of black bricks and mortar. At the very top, Otto could make out a flag with Bowser's insignia on it: an intimidating caricature of his face in blood red. Otto turned to Mace.

"You know, we could have Furaido and the other Paratroopas fly to the top of the Castle."

"Oh... right," Mace said sheepishly. "Well, it's too late now." With that he pushed the two heavy wooden doors apart. The rusty hinges creaked loudly.

"I... I don't believe this," Mace said. Neither of them had any idea what the inside of a Castle looked like. They had expected some stairs, hallways, maybe a statue or two, but what they saw now looked nothing like what they imagined. Inside the Castle, there were giant holes dug into the ground. Some were filled with lava, others had huge metal spikes at the bottom. Others seemed to go down forever.

"The Bosses sure like their security," Otto mumbled. On the narrow strips of floor around the holes, several Troopas walked to and fro unenthusiastically. The Koopas sent to guard the Bosses' Castles usually did not survive long, either because of there being more hazards inside the Castle, or because of the Bosses' short tempers and cruel hearts.

The two Koopa leaders started on their dangerous mission. They walked sideways across a walkway between two lava pits. The heat was blistering, but they moved on. Several old eyes watched them without much interest.

"Do you think we have any possible recruits for our army here?" Otto asked.

Mace looked around. "I doubt it."

* * *

"Quiet!" Otto said to Mace. Morton was sprawled on his stomach asleep on his throne. They had both met the Boss of World Two when he gave a short speech during their graduations from military training. He was probably intoxicated then, and he was probably intoxicated now. Behind the throne, a door led to the roof, where the flag and the cannon were.

Mace and Otto tiptoed around the drunken Koopaling, and out the door. They were surprised to see that the cannon was actually bigger than they had imagined. It was made of black iron, with a yellow ring around the rim of the muzzle. It was held up by two yellow stands that were bolted onto a rotatable platform.

"Well, want to go first?" Otto asked Mace. He turned to where he thought Mace was, but realized that he wasn't there. Suddenly, he heard a loud bang behind him. When he turned back to the cannon, he saw a cloud of smoke coming out of the cannon. He looked up. Mace had apparently set the cannon to World Three, and was now a small dot, quickly shrinking as he flew into the horizon.

Otto approached the cannon. He felt a pang of fear now that he saw the huge machine up close. _Maybe I don't need to go_, Otto thought. _Maybe Mace could steal the Airship by himself._

Otto heard a grumbling noise behind him. He spun around to see a shadow of Morton getting up out of his throne. Otto gulped. The sound from the cannon must have woken Morton up. Otto adjusted his helmet.

By the time Morton got outside to the roof, Otto was already quickly catching up to Mace.


	9. Chapter 7

Otto smashed through a window. He slid to a half just inches from a chain of fire turning slowly over the floor.

"Good thing I'm wearing a helmet," he said to himself. Painfully, he got up. "Hmm, looks like we landed right on our mark. That was extremely lucky."

Suddenly, Otto realized that he came with a partner.

"Mace?" Otto looked around.

"Ouch. You're just lucky that you have a helmet. I think my face is broken." Otto turned around to find that Mace had been sitting in the corner of the room, waiting for him. "Looks like this Airship really likes its security too, huh?"

As if on cue, the two heard a loud banging coming from right behind the room.

"Is anyone in there? Open the door! You just disturbed my coffee break!" came the voice of a Koopa Troopa guard.

"Uh, oh. That's not good. Got a plan?" Mace whispered quietly.

The banging intensified.

Otto scanned the huge cube-shaped room. There wasn't much, really. Just a door, a cross of fire spinning over the floor of the room, as to make the very edges of the room the only safe place to stand, and two broken windows.

"Hmm. They'll see us if we stay right here, and they'll look through the windows, so we can't climb outside and get in some other way. Besides, it's too dangerous." Otto thought out loud. "I know! If we ask them, they may join us in our rebellion against Bowser. If not, we can KO them, and tie them up!"

The banging stopped. "We know you're in there, so come out and surrender, or we smash this door open and kill you!"

There was no reply. Suddenly, the door caved in and two Koopa Troopa guards entered through the hole in the door. Both noticed that they weren't alone. The two guards searched the entire room and looked out the windows, just as Otto predicted. Then, the guards saw the pair in the corner, as if waiting for them to see them.

The guards started chasing them around the room, and Otto decided he had to ask them to help them before they did anything drastic to them.

"We are here to take over this airship so we can overthrow Bowser. Will you join us?" Otto asked the guards, as they four ran in circles.

"You're crazy, kid. You can't overthrow him! Not with eight Koopalings as his guards!"

"Eight? There are eight?"

"Yeah, Bowser Jr."

"So, I guess you won't help us right?"

"No. Bowser Jr will kill us!"

"OK, then. NOW!"

The two jumped over the trap, surprising the two guards, and tackled them. The guards fell with Otto and Mace, and Otto dropped his hammer on the floor, making a loud noise.

One guard tried to radio for help, but Otto quickly grabbed the communicator with his hand and smashed it to pieces. The four struggled for a while, still in the corner of the room, until Mace freed one hand and punched his guard hard in the face. Unconsciousness was imminent. Then, Mace aided Otto in neutralizing the remaining guard.

"That was close." Otto panted, as he picked up his hammer.

"Those were just two guys. How are we going to defeat, like two hundred of them?"

"We won't have to. We'll capture the control room and get them to join us. Some may sympathize with us and will help us. The other Koopas will have obey us or we'll lock them in the brig of this ship." Otto said.

The two friends tied up and gagged the guards and hid them in the closet located directly behind where the two had been hiding.

They avoided the flame trap on the way to the door, and peeked into the hall. It was empty. The two cautiously tiptoed down the hall, towards the control room.

* * *

An experienced Koopa Troopa walked down the hallway to the last room. The Koopa had spikes on his shell, wild red hair, and two small horns on his head. He wore a white bib with a shark tooth design on it, and he looked exactly like Bowser would have as a kid. He had seen many things since the beginning of his life, and nothing scared him. He was the highest rank officer on this airship, even higher than Boomerang Bro on-board. He had heard a disturbance in this general area. It had sounded like a bunch heavy, metal objects hit the floor. He was sure it was somewhere here, but he had to check all forty-one other rooms of this section of the airship, just to be sure. He didn't want anyone to think he was mental, like that poor, insane Koopa down in World Two, especially since Bowser had entrusted this airship to him. It had taken him fifty-four minutes to check the rooms, and he was on the last room.

The door of the room in question was slightly ajar. _That's odd_, thought the Koopa, _it's against protocol to leave doors open without good reason._ He looked inside. At first, he couldn't see anything other than the flame trap, but as the flames passed the corners, he saw that this room had a closet. _Why does this room have to have a closet? None of the other rooms have one_, he thought, annoyed. He opened it to reveal two unconscious guards. At first, he didn't react, but then his primitive brain realized something odd. Normally, he would beat disobedient Koopas unconscious, but someone else had knocked out these guards. There were intruders. On _his_ ship. Bowser would kill him if he found out. He pulled out his communicator.

"This is Bowser Jr! We have a Code Green! I repeat. We have a Code Green!"

Then, the most experienced Koopa Troopa on the ship panicked as he ran towards the control room.


	10. Chapter 8

The alarm went off. The intercom was switched on. "We have an intruder alert in section 3-G! All Koopas must search the entire ship to prevent the intruders from escaping or taking control!"

"Shoot!" Mace said. "They've discovered us!"

"I know, but keep going. We're almost at the control car." Otto replied.

They were both sprinting now. They weren't going that fast, but considering the fact that one of them hadn't ran in ages, and that the other was wearing a heavy helmet and carrying two hammers, each heavier than Mace, they were doing pretty well. Considering that there were exactly two hundred and ninety-two Koopas on their tail, trying to get them before they got to the control room.

"There! The door!"

The two reached the door. Mace tried the doorknob. It was locked.

"Come, on! Come, on!" Mace whined, as he shook the door until it. "Open, you stupid door!"

"If all else fails, use a hammer," advised Otto. "At least, that's what the instructors said at the academy." Otto quickly pulled out a hammer and smashed the lock until it broke. Then, the two opened the door, went through, and slammed the door shut. Mace wedged a boomerang that was conveniently placed on the ground next to them into the door's hinge, holding it shut.

"Ahem. I believe that that was _my_ boomerang." said an annoyed voice, coming from behind the pair.

Both turned around. There were three Koopas and one thing. The voice belonged to a Boomerang Bro, who was rather annoyed that Mace had to use his weapon as a door lock.

"What are you? I- I mean, _who_ are you? And where is Bowser Jr.?" Mace asked nervously. The enemy he was questioning looked sort of like the Koopa King, only smaller.

"I AM Bowser Jr.!" said Bowser Jr.

"Really? Well, I thought you would be larger than this!"

"Shut up! And what are you doing on _my_ airship?" he asked, as if furious that they _had_ to choose _his_ airship to steal.

The group of enemies advanced on the twosome.

Mace gulped. "What do we do? We can't go back, because the rest of the Koopas are behind that door."

"We'll fight," Otto said, trying to sound more confident than he really was. "Attack!"

The two groups charged at each other. Mace grabbed one of Otto's hammers and bashed two of the Koopas until they hid in their shells to protect themselves. Then, he threw the shells at Bowser Jr, who snarled as the shells hit him in the chest. Bowser Jr grabbed the shells and he chucked them back, with Mace leaping out of the way. The shells narrowly missed him and started bouncing all over the place.

Meanwhile, Otto was dueling with the Boomerang Bro. They traded blows with their tools, then they both stepped back to throw their weapons at each other. Otto ducked, and the boomerang flew right through the spot his neck was a moment ago. Then, before the weapon returned, he flung his hammers at the Boomerang Bro, who dodged the barrage of lethal weapons. Otto was about to deliver a crippling blow while his foe was off-balance, when the boomerang returned to Otto's enemy. The weapon clipped Otto's head as it passed by and stunned him for a moment. When he recovered, he found that he was on his knees with a very sharp boomerang at his throat.

Otto looked towards Mace for help, but he was busy dodging the fireballs Bowser Jr was firing at him. He was alone.

"No help coming for you this time." the Koopa sneered. "Say goodbye!"

As the Boomerang Bro swung his tool at Otto, he saw out of the corner of his eye a green blur zooming towards his foe. Thunk! The shell hit the Koopa, not enough to knock him out, but with enough force that it interrupted the Boomerang Bro's attack.

Otto seized the moment and lashed out with his foot, tripping up the Koopa, and quickly got up. As the Boomerang Bro stood up, he kicked out, but Otto had anticipated that. He jumped backwards, landed on Bowser Jr., which forced him into his shell, and launched himself at the Boomerang Bro. He knocked him off his feet and pulled out his hammer and held it up, threatening the Boomerang Bro.

"Surrender." Otto ordered.

The Koopa surrendered. Otto smacked him in the face and the Koopa went unconscious.

"Some help, please?" came a strained voice.

Otto walked over to where Mace had held down Bowser Jr.

"I demand you let me go!" he shrieked. When no answer came, "Release me! Release me, I say!"

"Oh, we'll definitely release you. Just after we kill Bowser!" Mace said sarcastically. To Otto, "I've got him under control. There's no way he can escape."

Then, Bowser Jr. got away.

Otto and Mace stood in front of an extremely large cage.

"Where is Bowser Jr.? We have to capture him, or he'll ruin our plans." Mace said.

Bowser Jr. had escaped shortly after the Koopas had surrendered. Then, twosome had been chased all over the airship, but Bowser Jr. stopped chasing them a while ago. Now, his exact location was unknown to them.

"Aha," said a voice. "I've got you now!"

They spun around in surprise and leaped out of the way as Bowser Jr charged at them, scepter in hand. He couldn't stop in front of the cage and he ran into the cage itself. Suddenly, he slammed into something inside the cage. The force of the collision slammed the door of the cage, and try as he might, he couldn't open it. Neither could Otto and Mace.

Bowser Jr. spun around. He realized that he was behind a large door made of metal bars.

"Oh no!" He ran to the door and pulled on it, but years of rust had locked the gate shut. "Get me out of here!" he whined in his high pitched voice.

Mace and Otto appeared on the other side of the door.

"You need to get me out of here!" Bowser Jr. continued. "This is a-"

"No, we're not helping you." Otto said. "If you're stuck in that cage, you can't hold back our rebellion." With that, they turned and walked back to the control room, without looking back.

Bowser Jr. shouted after them. "You don't understand! I'm locked in a-," he stopped as something breathed down his back.

* * *

"Should we go help him?"

"No. If he's locked up in there, it's for his own good, and it's good for us." reasoned Mace as the two went back to the control room.

When they got back to the control room, Otto walked to the intercom. "Attention all Koopas! My teammate and I have locked up Bowser Jr., so for now, you are now free Koopas. Join us in our rebellion against the Koopa King and you will be free forever."

Throughout the entire ship, Koopas cheered.

Then Otto remembered.

"Wait. Wasn't he trying to tell us something important?"

"I don't know."

There was a faint sound in the background. It sounded like a huge starving animal given a slab of meat for the first time in a month.

"Oh, no. We left him in a Chain Chomp Cage!"

They listened closely, and sure enough, they could hear screams of terror echo throughout the airship.

Then, the noises abruptly stopped.


	11. Chapter 9

Furaido was waiting in World Two with the army of Koopas. He was sitting at the bottom step of the stair like wall that Otto had been sent to. Around eight hundred other Koopas were crowded around him, and they were beginning to get restless.

Furaido felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around. For a moment, he thought that there was nobody there, but then he looked down. A tiny little child Koopa was looking up at him.

"Mr. Furaido, sir," the boy asked. "Why did King Bowser kidnap the Princess?"

Furaido smiled. "He's jealous, little dude. He's jealous that Princess Peach gets to live in the beautiful Mushroom Kingdom, and all he gets are these Eight Wastelands."

The little boy was in thought for a while. "So, he's trying to help the Koopas?"

"Oh no, little boy. The King doesn't care for us at all. He just cares for himself and his children. We're simply just tools for him to throw away after he's done with us." Then, Furaido was in thought for a while. "Hey... shouldn't you be in military training?"

The boy realized he just made a mistake. Then, he started to tear up. "Oh please Mr. Furaido, sir. Please don't tell the Boss. He's going to take me away from my mom and dad, and I won't see them again." The boy continued to cry. Furaido comforted him.

"Hey, don't cry. I won't tell anyone." Furaido couldn't have if he wanted to. When a male and female Koopa get placed in stations next to one another, they usually fall in love and the female gets pregnant. The children of these people become the next generation of Koopa Troopas. It was extremely unlikely that two Koopas who love each other would be placed right next to each other. Luckily for Bowser, a female Koopa usually lays around thirty eggs at a time.

Sometimes, a couple would try to pull a fast one on the Bosses when they come to collect their children. They would save one egg for themselves to raise as a child, instead of sending them to be raised in Bowser's iron fist.

Furaido was one of these children. He still remembered his parents. They were stationed in World One, in the nearest stations to the Mushroom Kingdom. When Furaido was around five years old, his parents took him to the wall of the Mushroom Kingdom. No Koopa was permitted near the wall, not by the Mushroom Kingdom nor Bowser. His parents showed him through a crack the land that was so close, and yet so out of reach. Furaido never forgot the sight. Citizens were celebrating a Star Festival. Creature of what appeared to be similar to Goombas, but smarter, cuter, and happier were dancing here and there, around the town square. They were dressed in beautiful clothing. Then, Princess Peach walked out of a balcony in a pink elaborate gown and gave a speech. Above them, a star streaked across the sky.

_Funny how stars are never seen here_, Furaido thought bitterly. Of course, he was eventually found, and taken to training, where he got these horrible wings implanted into him. He wasn't sure what happened to his parents.

Then, a thought came to mind. His parents were in World One. If what the mutilated Paratroopa said was true, World One was already destroyed by Mario. The Mushroom Kingdom... killed his parents.

Furaido felt his teeth clench. If they ever got to World Eight, Otto and Mace better not trust him with Princess Peach.

* * *

"Here we are!" Mace announced over the intercom. The newly controlled Airship Fortress slowly hovered above the desert sand. Mace spun around in the chair of the control room. "Oh yeah, I forgot to disable the traps on this ship." He quickly studied the wall of buttons in front of him, and chose one which Otto could not see what made it so special from the others. He pressed it. Every chain of fire retracted back into their rotators. Every chain chomp was pulled back into their cages.

"Wait, how did you know which button to press?"

Mace shrugged.

* * *

About forty minutes later, the airship landed in front of Furaido's army. Mace stuck his head out a window.

"All aboard!" he yelled.

"You heard him! Let's get on!" Furaido commanded.

Two gigantic wooden drawbridges opened up in front of the troops. Mace walked outside to the cheers of eight hundred people. "People, get on this ship now!" He turned around, and almost fell backwards. Mace had got his first view of the Airship from the outside. It was bigger than he had expected when he was inside it. It looked just like a regular wooden ship, with four sails, and a flag with Bowser's face on it, except it was at a ridiculous size. A row of cannons was built into both sides of it.

The army of Koopa Troopas all ran for the entrances. Mace quickly returned inside to avoid being trampled by hundreds of feet. Furaido flew above.

"Hurry up. Be careful. Don't push or shove. There's room for everyone."

Suddenly, something tiny in the distance caught Furaido's attention. Furaido strained his eyes. It got closer. It appeared to be a short man with a mustache, wearing a red hat and blue overalls. Oh no.

"Mario's coming!" Furaido yelled at the top of his lungs. The crowd below him was driven into a frenzy. They screamed in confusion and fear of the one that singlehandedly killed every Koopa in World One. Several people were pushed off the bridges and were forced to the end of the lines. Furaido flew inside and joined his partners.

Eventually, every Koopa made it inside. Mario was getting near.

"Close the drawbridges!" Furaido shouted to Mace in the cockpit. Mace quickly pressed another two buttons and pulled a lever. The four openings closed themselves, just as Mario reached the Airship's landing site. The huge boat lifted itself off the ground and started on its journey to the rest of the Worlds.

Mace looked out a side window. He couldn't make out what Mario looked like, but he saw something run without break up to the land directly below the Airship. It jumped high off the ground in one last attempt to catch up to the ship, but ended up back in the sand, empty-handed. Mace gulped. Something about the way Mario showed no tire or fatigue from doing all that made him fear for his life. As the Airship Fortress flew away from the mercenary, Mace wanted to make sure he would never catch up to them.

"Otto!" Mace said. "Destroy the cannon on Morton's Castle!"

The Airship neared the Castle. One of the cannons on its side aimed itself at the tiny building on the ground. It fired an iron bullet, decorated with intimidating eyes and arms, which hit its target far below them. Mace could see the chubby speck that was their former Boss run out angrily of his home, which now lacked a roof. Morton looked up, and waved his scepter threateningly, but Mace didn't worry. He knew now that nobody, not Morton, not Bowser, not even Mario, could stop his mission in liberating his people.


	12. Chapter 10

An airship hovered above World Three, a group of islands in the middle of an ocean, before landing. Mace was at the window, looking at the World. In the ocean, a small, red-and-white fish swam clumsily in the shallow waters. Then, out of nowhere, a humungous, buck-toothed version of that small fish jumped out of the sea and swallowed it whole.

Mace winced.

Inside, Furaido was talking into a microphone. In front of him, the army of almost a thousand Koopa Troopas-the eight hundred from World Two, plus the Troopas originally on the Airship-stared up at him. Mace and Otto had asked him to be in control of the army. Furaido agreed without hesitating. He knew he was perfect for the job. Right now, he was giving a speech to the troops, to explain their plan and encourage them to fight as hard as they could. A hand raised.

"So, why do we need to recruit the Koopas in the other Worlds?" The asker was middle aged, and slightly overweight.

"Well, if we are going to attack Bowser's Castle in World Eight, we are going to need all the Koopas we need."

The asker was still skeptical. "Oh come on. We were able to destroy Morton's Castle pretty easily with this Airship. How much worse could Bowser's be?"

Furaido shook his head. He slowly walked to one side of the stage. His head was turned for effect. "Have you ever wondered why nobody has ever witness a Koopa die? They just get older and older, and then one day they disappear?"

The asker didn't know what to say.

Furaido wasn't actually sure himself, but he had heard rumours.

* * *

Above Furaido, Mace was standing on the humongous outside bridge of the ship. He was looking up to see the ominous flag, bearing the red caricature of Bowser's face that marked this ship for his. Bowser's face looked back.

Mace turned his head sideways. The face stayed the same. He wondered if the face on the flag knew that the ship was under new order, and, if it did, what it thought of it. Mace first thought that it would be angry that the ship he was marking as his own would be hijacked, but then he realized that the flag wasn't marking the ship as his, but was rather being forced into marking it as Bowser's property. It seemed that the flag was just another enslaved innocent, forced to do Bowser's bidding.

Mace felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned to find Otto, draped in a large rectangular black cloth.

"I got the new flag," he said. "Some of the more artistic Koopas painted this. Help me get it up."

Mace looked back up at the old flag. Expressionlessly, he grasped the rope and pulled it down. He carefully unhooked the Bowser flag. Otto went up to it, and tied the new flag to the rope. He yanked on it, and the flag flew upwards until it reached the top.

Otto stared at it. The artists had painted a flag similar to the old one, but instead of Bowser's head, it was a bright green shell in a black background. It was windy day, and the new Koopa flag waved and flutter bravely. Otto smiled in pride.

Mace wasn't paying attention to the Koopa flag. He was sitting on a bench near the edge of the wooden bow. The old Bowser flag hung at his fingertips, flapping in the wind, just like the new flag. For a moment, Mace did nothing but look into the two vacuums of darkness that were the flag's eyes. Then, he let his finger go. The flag sailed out from his grasp, and far away, blown where ever the wind carried it.

Mace smiled. It was free.


	13. Chapter 11

Three red Paratroopas scanned the island.

At first, nothing seemed out of the ordinary, but you couldn't really tell much when you're 10 000 metres up.

"There!" the first Paratroopa cried out. "It's Bowser's Airship Fortress!"

"What could he be doing in World Three?" asked the second.

"I don't know, but he wouldn't come without good reason!" declared the third.

As the three watched, the airship hovered above the main island and landed. Then, something happened. It looked as if something had come off of the ship. Something black. As the wind carried the object up towards them, the Paratroopas realized what it was. It was Bowser's flag.

The apparent leader of the threesome was shocked. No Koopas loyal to Bowser would dare to discard such an important item. It was a direct insult to the Koopa King. He told this fact to the others, and they decided that they would go after whoever had done such a thing. However, because there was a chance that the Airship Fortress had been captured by enemies, they couldn't just fly down there and start hurting the idiots who had discarded the flag. No, if there really was a rebellion happening, they would have to be very cautious about this. And who knows? If they turned in the Koopas who had insulted the Koopa King, he might reward them.

As the three plotted against the rebels, four small green figures quickly exited the airship. The figures grouped together for a while, and then split up.

"There's our chance!" the leader said.

"You! Get a rock from the beach and follow us."

The specified Paratroopa dived down and picked up a heavy, round rock the size of a Koopa shell and then flew after the others. For an hour, the Redshells followed the green Paratroopa closest to them. When they were in an open area without any witnesses, they released their grip.

When the rock hit, the Paratroopa fell like the rock that hit him.

* * *

Furaido and his Paratroopa squad split up. They had a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time. The destruction of the World Two cannon would slow down Mario, but it wouldn't stop him. The rebels had to act quickly, or Wendy, the World Three boss, would find them and squash their rebellion and their airship. Each Paratroopa would take one quarter-section of the island, but Furaido was extremely lucky today, so he got the section with the Boss's castle in it.

Furaido flew around, talking to all the Koopas he met, directing them to the airship. Most of them were pretty supportive of the rebellion, but one of the Koopas had to be convinced.

That Koopa was one of the few red-shelled Koopas, an elite breed of Koopa Troopa that were apparently much more intelligent than the regular green type. The argument cost Furaido ten minutes from his already short deadline. Eventually, though, the Koopa gave in, and agreed to join the rebels.

Afterwards, he flew in every possible direction until he was pretty sure that he had got all of the Koopa Troopas in his section. He flew back to the ship, hoping the others had the same luck, when, out of the blue, a something smashed into him. It caused him to spiral out of control, and then crash into the ground near the castle. Right before everything went black, he really, really hoped that the other Paratroopas weren't as lucky as he was.


	14. Chapter 12

Furaido awoke with a start.

He remembered, just before he lost consciousness, that he was hit in head by something, something round. And there was a flash of red above him. But besides that, he couldn't remember a thing. _Who was he? Where was he? How long was he out? Why was he asking so many questions? Oh, yeah. His name was Furaido, and he was a what? Oh, right. Paratroopa._

Furaido looked around, confused. The place didn't look familiar, but then, it would matter, anyways. There was a castle right in front of him, with guards everywhere, and an ocean behind him, with small islands, each with a Koopa on it.

Furaido decided to go to the islands, to talk to one of the World's inhabitants and ask one of them about where he was. He flew over to the closest island.

On the island, there was not a Koopa Troopa, but a friendly bespectacled Lakitu riding a cloud was watching Furaido as he came over. When Furaido approached him and asked some questions, he answered them the best he could.

"Don't you know anything? We're in World Three! Say! Haven't I seen you before? Whatever, want to come with me? I'm going to the Airship Fortress to join the rebellion against Bowser. He's the most evil being I can think of! The only one worse than him is Tabuu, but he's so horrible, you are simply unable to think of him! A nice Paratroopa visited me about 4 hours ago and asked me to join them. He looked sort of like you, but I guess all Paratroopas look the same. Well, except for the group of Red Paratroopas I saw pass by about two and a half hours ago. They seemed to have left in a hurry."

Furaido went with the talkative Lakitu, and as the two got closer to the Airship, it hit him. _He_ was the Paratroopa that recruited this Lakitu and his Koopa friends. Then, he remembered everything that had happened before. Except, he was missing a vital memory. Something important. Or was it?

"Hey! There you are! Where were you? Mace and I were worried about you. We've already gotten everyone on-board. You're the last to arrive. We have to get to the next World soon." Otto said hurriedly.

"I got knocked out by a rock or something."

"Oh. Are you alright?"

"Yeah."

Then, Furaido went into the Airship Fortress.

On the way to the next World, Furaido tried to remember what it was that was so important, but it would take a few days to remember. If he ever did.

* * *

Otto steered the airship to World Four. Like most normal sized Koopas, Mace and Otto had never seen World Four before. Furaido had seen glimpses of it, while flying over the land during training missions, but he didn't get to see any of its citizens up close.

As the Airship landed, Mace was filled with excitement. Legend had it that the giant Koopas in World Four were four times the size of normal Koopas, and had amazing strength. He had heard that the ground itself shook when they moved their legs.

Otto on the other hand, was less than thrilled. He had also heard stories. He was told that the giant Koopas in World Four had huge muscles, but dangerously tiny brains. They were so stupid, that they weren't even given stations because they couldn't control themselves to stay in one spot, and were allowed to roam around, trampling anything underfoot.

A drawbridge opened. Mace sprinted out. He couldn't wait.

Otto poked his head out from behind the giant doorway.

"Be careful, Mace!" He called, but Mace had been long gone.

Down on the land, Mace continued to run. For a while, he didn't see anything out of order. World Four was just grassland, similar to World One. He spun around several times. _Gee_, he thought. _You'd think giant Koopas would be easy to find_. Mace crouched down on to the grass. _That's weird. This grass is three times as long as any grass I've ever seen_.

Suddenly, the ground started vibrating. Mace stood up. He wasn't sure what to do, as he never experienced an earthquake before. He fell onto all fours, as the vibrating got bigger. He held on to the ground, with his eyes closed, trying not to get shook off.

Then, the shaking stopped. He waited a minute, just to make sure it was safe. He slowly got off of his hands, and onto his knees. When nothing happened, he stood up. Then, Mace opened his eyes.

Staring down into them was the biggest Koopa he had ever seen in his life. He was at least twice as tall as Mace and twice as wide. His eyes were huge dinner plates. He appeared to be chewing something.

They stared awkwardly at each other for a moment. Mace couldn't decide how to play this. Does the Koopa want to join their rebellion? If he asked him would he get angry like those red shells Furaido had seen earlier?

Mace opened his mouth to speak before he knew what he was going to say. Luckily, the giant held out his fist before he could say it. He opened his fingers to reveal a small red and white mushroom.

"Want mushroom?" he asked in his booming voice. "Good for metabolism."

* * *

The trio had picked up exactly two hundred giant Koopas in World Four when they started to move on, and the Airship Fortress still wasn't full. Mace had reckoned that they were carrying twenty-one hundred Koopas and could carry about fifteen hundred more Koopas, provided that they weren't giant as well, before it would be full to the brim. So, they continued on to World Six, the frozen wasteland. As the Airship approached the icy World, the cold suddenly froze the engines and they died. The Airship Fortress lurched dangerously to starboard, causing Otto and Mace to fall right on Furaido, and it plummeted as the engines spluttered to a halt.

"We're going down!"


	15. Chapter 13

Soon, the airship, half-filled with many passengers, including the two hundred giant Koopas, crash-landed.

The massive wooden Fortress smashed into the icy ground. It slid for another half mile, or two, before finally smashing against the side of a mountain. A layer of snow slid downhill from the mountain, and covered the stern of the Airship Fortress.

Inside, Furaido sat up. He was lying on his bed in his cabin. He looked out the window. It was completely white, like a blank sheet of paper.

_Oh crap, I died_, he thought.

* * *

"You alright?" Otto asked Mace. Mace nodded, but didn't look at Otto. He was staring out the bridge's window at the pure white snow that formed a skin over the glass. Otto rolled his eyes. He wondered how Mace ever survived by himself.

In a few minutes, the two of them were outside in World Six, staring at the ship from the back. They were up to their knees in snow.

"The entire front half of the ship is weighed down by the snow," Otto said. "I think we could manage to pull it out if we get enough people."

"Those giant Koopas from World Four could be of a real help." Mace said.

"Oh, yes, they could." Otto didn't want to admit he was wrong about the giant Koopas. They turned out to be slightly on the dull side, but they were kind and gentle hearted. "We could get them to pull the ship out."

"But we would need ropes," Mace said.

"Oh, right." Otto was slightly surprised at how fast Mace realized that, but he didn't want the entire operation foiled by a lack of ropes. "So what do we do?"

"Well, I think we should get more Koopas for our army first from this World. Then, we could have more people to pull the ship out."

"Okay, let's go."

They went.

* * *

Otto slipped on a patch of ice and landed hard. _Ouch_, he thought. _Why did I ever want to be sent here? It's a damn ice rink out here._

Mace reached out his hand and helped him up. Behind the two leaders were seven hundred frost-bitten Koopas, all of which agreed to join their cause. Some before they were even asked.

Mace turned to the crowd. He needed to say something to convince them to help pull the Airship out of the snow. "Alright, you poor, cold blooded brethren, forced to stay in this freezing cage by the self-proclaimed king. We all know you guys want to get out of here. What I want to know is, who is willing to get out of here?!"

He was glad to hear the loudest cheer he had ever heard up to that moment. Every disgruntled, bored and insane Koopascicle in front of him cried out as loud as their reptilian lungs could.

Otto shook his head and grinned. He carefully walked up to Mace.

"How do you always know what to do, and what to say?" He whispered.

"You don't know what it is like to be stuck in the desert all your life. You end up preparing yourself for every situation possible."

The cheers of agreement abruptly changed into mumblings of confusion. There was a loud snapping sound. Then another. Everybody were looking around for what caused the noise. Then they found it.

The ground wasn't covered with ice. It was ice. The cheer from the crowd had caused the ground they were standing on to crack.

"Get into the ship!" Mace yelled. The crowd ran towards the drawbridges on the ship. In all the havoc, Mace noticed that none of them came close to slipping once.

* * *

Furaido was running some warm water onto his hands. He had just spent the last few hours prying the frozen window open, and then scraping a tunnel out so some air could get through. Now his yellow hands were covered with frozen red sores.

When they became soggy red sores, Furaido came out of the bathroom. He stuck his head out of the window and took a deep breath. The frosty air was so much more what he was used to, instead of this stuffy cabin room he was stuck in. He took a look around. There was white to the horizon line.

Then, something flashed in the corner of his eye. He turned in the direction. At first he thought it was nothing, but he realized that many more Bowser-loyal Redshells were flying right to them.

_Why do I always have to be the lookout?_ He thought. He sprinted to the control room.

* * *

Almost all of the World Sixers were on the ship now. The ice was starting to come apart in floating pieces, but it was still relatively stable where the ship was stuck.

Mace and Otto hurried the last couple of Koopas on. They remained on the drawbridge, as the Koopas found their way around the various hallways.

"Well this is a bit of a pickle," Otto said. "The Koopas won't drown in the ship, and the ice seems to be holding up, but we still need to get the engine fixed, and get it out of the avalanche."

Mace nodded. "You know it's at time like this that-"

He was cut off, when the entire Airship Fortress jerked once to the left. Mace was tipping precariously over the edge, but Otto grabbed him before he could fall down into the quickly disintegrating ice.

"What was that?" Mace looked down. The ice was strong enough a minute ago.

The ship jerked again. Mace and Otto could hear the engine sputtering and wheezing.

"Somebody's trying to fly this thing!" As soon as Otto said this, the ice below the ship cracked up. The Airship fell into the water causing a huge splash. Otto and Mace hardly had any time to get inside, before the drawbridge was ripped off completely by a wave of water. The snow that was covering it crumbled off and melted in the water.

The Airship began to float down the now moving body of water. Otto and Mace clutched to the side of the giant doorway for their lives. Black smoke started pouring out of the cracks in the ship, from the engine that was being forced on.

Then, the Airship actually began to get itself off the water. Somehow, the persistency of the pilot's pedal foot made the engine shut up and start working. The Airship Fortress moved out of the water and into the sky, though now with a huge uncovered doorway on its side.


	16. Chapter 14

Furaido sat in the control room, shock written on his face. He had almost reached the control room when two Redshells had jumped out of the two doors closest to the room, grabbed him, and then tied him to a chair in the control room.

The Redshells had just discussed their plans, and Furaido had overheard them. Unfortunately, he wasn't sure whether they _wanted_ to be overheard by him. The loyal Redshells decided that they would pick up _their_ army and battle it out in the massive cargo hold of the Airship Fortress they had just captured. But their backup plan was worse. Just hearing it made Furaido turn as pale as the snow that had, until recently covered this airship: if the Redshells lost the battle, they would crash the ship in the ice-cold waters underneath the ice.

Furaido _had_ to get out and warn the others. He looked out of the frosted windows. The army of red-shelled Koopas were already in sight, and the pilot of the ship was putting the airship in landing mode. No time to stop the Koopa army from boarding, he thought, we'll have to fight while I try and get control of the ship.

Snap!

The rope holding Furaido to the chair broke. He had been trying to break the rope since he was tied up, and now he finally succeeded. He got up quickly, and ran for his life.

"He's escaped. Get him!"

Furaido ran harder. He got to the door and tried the handle. It was locked. He looked behind him. The two Paratroopa Redshells that had tied him up were coming at him. _Oh, great._

Suddenly, there was a loud banging sound at the door, and then, the door flew open. _Just in time_, Furaido thought.

"What the hell are you -" Otto started. "Oh. _That's_ what you're doing," he finished as he saw the red-shell pilot at the helm and two Paratroopas lunging for them. He let Furaido through the door and then slammed the door shut. The two Paratroopas slammed, face first into the now closed doorway.

"You stay here. I have to warn the others," Furaido advised.

"Why? What's happening?" asked Otto.

"You'll find out later. Just don't let anyone in _or_ out of this door until I return. Got it?"

"Okay..."

* * *

Furaido talked to Mace. It had taken Furaido five precious minutes to find the fragile-minded Koopa Troopa. "Listen to me. You have to tell the troops that Redshells are about to board the ship and they will fight us. There is no way to avoid this. Just go!"

"OK, OK!"

As Mace left Furaido and walked up to the next room, he thought about what was happening. Ever since Furaido's "accident", he seemed to be getting bossier and bossier. He opened the door. There were two Koopas in the room, one a Boomerang Bro, and the other a normal Koopa.

"Get up. There are some Redshells that are trying to board this ship. There are already three on-board, in the control room."

"Why? When are they going to get on?"

Mace heard a sound. It was as if one hundred pairs of feet had just decided to run at the same time and same location on a hollow wood floor. The sound was deafening.

"Now."

"Oh, darn it," said the Boomerang Bro.

Mace hurried as he visited the next rooms. When he was almost done the entire ship, the intercom said, "Attention all Koopas. You must surrender. My red-shelled colleagues and I have captured your ship and one of your leaders. We have two thousand Koopas loyal to the King on this ship, and we will fight you if we have to. You must surrender, or else we will kill you all. Thank you for listening."

Mace finished the rest of the rooms and then went to find Furaido and Otto, but all he could find was several hundred Koopas preparing for a battle. He decided to look in their room, the one with the closet, but all he could see was an empty room with some of Otto's hammers in the closet.

Then, the lights went out. He tried not to panic as he groped his way around the room, but then there was a bright flash of flame as the flame trap he had deactivated only hours ago was reactivated. Mace could hear the sound of Koopas screaming as they got burned as all of the flame traps on the ship were turned on.

* * *

Otto was furious. Furaido had told him to guard the control room, but immediately after he left, two Redshells had jumped out of the two doors closest to the room, grabbed him, and then tied him to a chair in the control room. Now, the pilot had landed and was talking into the intercom.

"Attention all Koopas. You must surrender. My red-shelled colleagues and I have captured your ship and one of your leaders. We have two thousand Koopas loyal to the King on this ship, and we will fight you if we have to. You must surrender, or else we will kill you all. Thank you for listening."

It sounded so much like the short speech he had made when he and Mace had captured this airship, that it made him feel like the Redshells were mocking them. Now, Otto just hoped that the rebels wouldn't surrender for his sake. He was willing to die just so that Bowser would be evicted from his throne. Luckily, he had a trick or two up his sleeve. Metaphorically speaking. The Redshells obviously weren't as skilled at tying enemies up as he was, so Otto knew some things they didn't. When he was tied up, he expanded his chest slightly by breathing in, and it left him with some space to maneuver when he breathed out. Then, it was a simple matter reach into his shell and pull out his hammer when they weren't looking.

A typical hammer has two ends: One, a flat side for pounding things, and a second, with two sharp protrusions that were perfect for prying things open. Coincidentally, the second side was also perfect for sawing the ropes he was tied up with.

Otto slowly and carefully sawed off the ropes. When he was done, he quietly tip-toed behind the three Paratroopas. The pilot was speaking again: "You have had ten minutes. I want you all to go to the cargo hold and surrender, because I am in contact with - _aurggh_!" he shrieked as Otto grabbed him and the other two Paratroopas. Otto, keeping his hammer up as an unspoken threat, turned off the intercom. Then, he knocked out the trio and tied them up, this time, making sure they wouldn't escape. Otto looked around. There was no more rope in sight. _Man, at least seven people have been tied up on this ship. _And then:_ No wonder we're running out of rope._

* * *

Click! Furaido looked up. The intercom was on again.

"You have had ten minutes. I want you all to go to the cargo hold and surrender, because I am in contact with - _aurggh_!"

Furaido smiled. Obviously, Otto had been captured, but had gotten free and grabbed the Koopas at the helm. Now, the only problem was the Redshell army in the cargo hold. Furaido had already gotten into there, unharmed, by covering his shell with tomato sauce, but he only wanted to count how many were there. There were only one hundred, really. The pilot had been bluffing all along.

Now, he was leading the Greenshells in a battle to get rid of the Redshell army. As the group walked down the hall, Mace appeared, a bit burnt, from a doorway.

"I heard. Let's go down there and chase those Koopas out."

When the army got to the cargo hold, the two armies charged.

* * *

Furaido took aim, and fired.

The battle in the cargo hold had barely lasted an hour before the Redshells retreated, and jumped off the ship. Most of them survived the fall, though. Otto had given back the five Paratroopas, all unconscious, from the control room, and the airship was about to leave the World.

But then, one of the Redshells decided to send a parting gift: a Bullet Bill. The projectile was a large, black bullet with a war design painted on it. The design included two eyes and a huge, ominous grin. It was flying straight for the engines when Furaido saw it. So, he quickly got to the cannons and blasted it out of the air.

The bullet was sent straight into the ice, never to be seen again. Furaido got mad.

"How dare they run? Cowards!" he cursed as he aimed once more.

"Stop! Don't shoot!" said Otto. "They're just Koopas! We could negotiate with them instead of massacring them!"

Furaido ignored his friend and fired anyway. The cannonball that was blasted smashed the ice around the Redshell army and the Koopas were left standing on a precariously shaky iceberg in the middle of an icy sea.

"Why did you do that? I told you to stop! You never listen to anyone. It's just you, you, you! You never listen to anyone, anymore! Can't you take other Koopas into consideration?"

The former friends glared at each other for a moment, and then Furaido broke the silence.

"Fine. I'm leaving!" he said angrily, and flew away. "Oh, yeah. In case you want to know where World Five is, look up!" With that, he flew off, towards the horizon.

Far below, about one hundred Redshell Koopas started sliding into the ocean as the iceberg cracked into millions of pieces.


	17. Chapter 15

The airship finally reached World Five.

The World made entirely of clouds floating high in the mesosphere was currently floating over World Seven. World Seven was known as the "Pipeland," and it was rightfully called so. Pipeland was currently uninhabited by any Koopas of any kind whatsoever. It was originally the heart of the sewer system of the citizens of the world before the Koopas took over. There was more green pipes, sticking out and branching to every other pipe in the eight Worlds than there was ground. It's Boss, Ludwig von Koopa, was probably the unluckiest Boss of them all.

Mace and Otto slowly braked the Airship Fortress. Outside, Paratroopas flew by left and right, but they when they reached a certain distance, they would turn and fly backwards. They too were forced to attend their stations, even up here.

"God, my ears are popping," Otto said. Mace hesitated before looking at him.

"Say, Otto," Mace said. "Do you think we were too hard on Furaido?"

Otto scoffed. "I'm sure we'd get a lot farther without that trigger-happy bozo."

Mace turned without saying a word. Otto analyzed his face, trying to figure out what he was thinking, but couldn't.

Something bounced off the windshield of the Airship's bridge, with a clanking sound. Both of the drivers jumped out of their seats to look forward. Mace pressed the button for the windshield to open up vertically. They both stuck their heads out.

Far below, a green shell fell, breaking many clouds in half. Many white feathers, some of which seemed to be charred, floated after it. The two looked up. Above them, more and more Paratroopa shells were falling down as well, their wings burned off. Although they couldn't see what was killing them from where they were, they noticed that the Paratroopas were getting hit by fireballs. Eventually, only one final Paratroopa remained in the area. He made some gestures that looked like he was begging someone off their field of vision, but it was useless. A fireball hit him. He managed to retreat back into his shell, before the fire seared his wings right off. He plummeted like a rock out of his station, a guttural scream emitting from his throat.

"What's happening?!" Otto stretched his head farther out. "It couldn't be a Redshell. They could never get powers like that."

Then, the murderer of the Koopas showed himself. He soared around the Airship and in front of the open windshield. It was Mario.

"Mario?! How did he get here?!" Mace shrugged once more, but his eyes were trained on Mario. The mercenary was now sitting upon the back of what looked to be a bipedal dinosaur of some sort. It was covered with green scales, and a saddle looked like it was growing out of his back. It had two wings growing out of its sides, which it was using to fly. The dinosaur, along with Mario, looked into the two rebel leader's eyes with all the hate in the World. Then, the dinosaur opened its mouth, and brought its head back. It suddenly shot it back forward, and shot a huge ball of pure fire at the control room.

"Look out!" Otto and Mace both ducked just in time for the fireball to zoom over their heads and blow the door behind them into oblivion. Needless to say, Mace and Otto sprinted out of the down empty doorway as fast as they could.

"How did Mario get here?" Otto said as they charged through the hallway, and past some very surprised recruited Koopas.

"I don't know," Mace said absentmindedly. Otto wondered why he ever asked him anything.

The two managed to find the door to the cannon room, and then managed to unlock it. They ran inside yelling at the top of their lungs.

"Mario's here! Shoot him down, now!" Of course, nobody heard the second part of their shout, before they were drowned out by the screams of panic that followed. In just a minute, every cannon operator had ran out the door.

"Great," Otto said. "Well, we better shoot down Mario ourselves."

The two of them each picked a cannon. They opened the small trapdoor that was on the outside of the ship, and poked the barrel out. Mario seemed to have known where they would have went, as he was on the other side, making his dinosaur shoot barrages of fireballs to the side of the Airship. Many of them hit the wood around the cannons that they were behind.

Mace finally spoke during this ordeal. "Fire!" Otto felt compelled to obey.

Several Bullets were shot in Mario's direction. Somehow, he managed to dodge all of them perfectly by flawlessly executing aerial dodges, loop-de-loops, and zigzags while flying the dinosaur. He then turned and made the dinosaur spit a fireball.

Otto's cannon exploded and he was sent flying backwards until he hit the wall. He quickly got to his feet and dusted himself off.

"Bullets aren't working!" he said.

Mace pondered this for a few precious seconds. "Get the Banzai!" He shouted. Otto nodded.

The Banzai was similar to the other Bullets, but it was different in two ways. First, along with the traditional angry eyes and arms that Bowser decorates his missiles with, the Banzai had a sly, evil-looking mouth as well.

Otto heaved the smiling ammunition to Mace. Mace opened up the cannon and placed the Banzai in. Then he aimed and fired.

Mario saw the Banzai speeding towards him. He spun in the air, and stopped two feet to the side. The missile shot right past him. Mario smiled cockily.

The second difference between the Banzai and the Bullet was that the Banzai was a homing missile that followed enemies around. It was also known as the "Shellfire missile" in military operations due to its reputation for being extremely accurate and destructive. It was so devastating, you could obliterate a small island with a single missile.

The Banzai did a 180 in the air and continued its course towards the now unsuspecting Mario and his flying dinosaur. Mario turned his head just in time to see the evil face staring right back at him.

The collision was tremendous. Clouds around them turned black from the smoke and the fire. When the multiple mid-air explosions were finished, the unconscious Mario and his dinosaur were falling fast down into the Seventh World, the Land of Pipes.

The Seventh World didn't have any Koopa Troopa inhabitants, and what it lacked in population, it more than made up for it in its excess of Piranha Plants and Venus Fire Traps. Mario disappeared in the maze of iron pipes far below.

Otto and Mace looked down through the trapdoor.

"We better move quickly," Mace said. "I think he has another life."

Otto scratched his head.


	18. Chapter 16

Mace walked through the gate of the spooky mansion ahead. Inside, he cautiously walked past a suit of armour.

The suit of armour fell to the ground and broke apart. The pieces scattered across the hall. Mace spun around, expecting the worse. There was nothing. Whew, Mace thought. A was told that this place was haunted, but I guess they were just silly rumours of the weak-hearted. Then, Mace spotted another suit of armour. This time, however, he was very cautious, and peeked behind the visor, just in case.

At first, he couldn't see anything inside the dark, musty helmet. And then, a pair of eyes. The eyes stared back for a moment, before being covered by two small hands.

"Aaaahhhh!" Mace screamed as he stumbled backwards in shock. His foot caught the legs of the armour and it fell to the floor, leaving a small, white ball, still covering its eyes.

Mace ran. He sprinted down the hall, until he was sure that he had left the Boo behind. He cautioned a glance over his shoulder. The Boo was still there, covering its eyes.

Mace ran again. Only this time, his progress was blocked by a large white object that wasn't in front of him before.

A larger version of the ghost he had just seen was closer to him than he had ever been to someone else before. Mace had never seen such a large Boo, even the counting the scale drawings of them in the military academy. He had been told, that if he encountered one, he should get out of there as quickly as possible.

"Boo."

This single word sent Mace running for the Airship, screaming all the way.

* * *

The Boos watched as the freaked out Koopa Troopa fled from their home.

"Boo," said the smaller ghost.

"Boo..." the larger one replied sadly.

In case you don't speak Boo, here's a translation:

"What the heck is _his_ problem?"

"I don't know! I was just trying to give him this sharp object I found..."

* * *

Otto sat in the pilot seat of the Airship Fortress. He had sent Mace into the mansion to see whether there were any Koopas inside. Normally, he would get Furaido to investigate, but he had left, and the other Paratroopas started growing discontent afterwards. Currently, the airship sat in front of the ghost house of World Eight.

Suddenly, an ear-piercing scream filled the air. Mace came, running, out of the mansion doors, screaming at the top of his lungs. Then, Mace ran up the drawbridge, closed it, and went to the control room, still screaming.

Otto winced. "Could you scream a bit more softly? Some of us are trying to sleep." Otto was referring to the two-and-a-half thousand Koopas sleeping in the vast, extensive airship.

"Anyways, there wasn't much in that house. Just a few hundred Boos." Mace changed the subject. Now, this was an exaggeration, but Mace didn't care because, as far as he was concerned, returning to that building was a no go. Mace thought that Otto realized this, too.

"Yeah... I think I can tell from what you were just doing," Otto said slowly.

"Sorry about that. I was just kidding. But not about the Boo thing."

"Uh, huh," Otto nodded, doubtful.

The control room was suddenly shaken by a loud screeching roar.

"Whoa. What the hell was that?!" Otto swore loudly.

"Umm... I think I know the answer, but it's not that pleasant." Mace answered.

"What? Is it Mario again?" Otto asked, dreading the answer.

"Actually, it would be easier to just show you instead."

"Then show me!"

"Well... the answer is right over there." Mace pointed. "Wait! Don't look yet. Are you truly, absolutely, swear-on-your-parents'-non-existent-graves sure that you want to look?"

"Yes!" roared Otto.

"It'll scar you for life," Mace warned.

"Just show me, for goodness sake! Life is short, anyway, so it doesn't matter!"

"OK. Look out the window."

Otto looked. It was the Koopa King's personal army and the five remaining Koopalings. Every Koopaling except for the ones killed by Mario and Bowser Jr., were sitting next to one another in a devastating tank, which launched Banzai Bills from its main cannon.

"How did he find us?" Otto asked, not sure whether he wanted an answer.

"Umm..." Mace looked at his shoes, or at least where they should have been, guiltily.

"Oh, right... I was screaming too loudly, and he heard me with his supernatural hearing." Otto said sarcastically.

"Yeah. That's _exactly_ what happened."


	19. Chapter 17

The alarm rang. Far below the control room, every Koopa scrambled for their belongings. A voice spoke over the intercom.

"Alright, men and women. We're here. The final stop for our journey. We have reached World Eight."

Several Koopas poked their heads out to get a view of the World, but they stuck their heads back in when they were hit with a wall of heat. World Eight was a pair of islands in the middle of a huge lake of lava. It was at the base of the source of all that lava, a perpetually erupting volcano, and was treated to intense heat and fire. Nothing grew, and little survived.

The voice continued. "I understand that many of you are scared of this place. I understand that you might get killed here. But I ask you fellow Koopas, how can you get the freedom you all seek without having to fight for it?!"

As the intercom spoke, the Koopas prepared themselves. The Hammer Brothers and Sisters slung their bags of hammers over their shoulders. Paratroopas adjusted their wings. Koopas carried snarling caged Goombas to be released onto the enemies.

A barred door was brought up, and a confused Chain Chomp was released.

The three remaining drawbridges descended. Hundreds upon hundreds of Koopa rebels poured out, some armed with hammers, some with boomerangs, and some with only their bare hands. When they all were out, Mace and Otto pushed their ways through to the front of the army.

They were greeted to World Eight by the five remaining of Bowser's children. They were sitting in a large wooden tank, with two iron guns.

The leaders glared at the five Bosses in the tank. The five bosses glared back at them. Sitting all on a single throne on the tank was Princess Wendy, a teenage girl spoiled by all the royalties that Bowser gives to her, Prince Iggy, a mechanically-savvy mastermind, Prince Roy, a sadistic bully wearing pink sun glasses, Prince Lemmy, a completely insane little Koopa, and the oldest Prince Ludwig, an arrogant Koopa who claims to be a great composer but is actually terrible at music of any kind. Bowser Jr, Prince Morton and Prince Larry, the Boss of World One who had been killed by Mario, were missing.

All five of them were holding strange glowing staffs that none of the other Koopa Troopas had seen before.

Otto spoke. "Bowser's children. You are completely out-numbered. Every live Koopa in this kingdom is in front of you now, ready to attack you and your father. We will destroy your government and create our own, where we will not be forced to stay in stations for your purposes." There were several cheers from the crowd. Ludwig Von Koopa stood up.

"You say you have every _live_ Koopa?" His voice was deep, yet altered from years of whining.

Otto thought about his comment. As far as he knew, no Koopa was ever sent to guard World Eight.

"Y-yes," he said. "Every living Koopa is here."

Ludwig smiled. "Okay, okay. I'm not disagreeing with you." He turned to his siblings. "Brothers and sisters, wave your wands."

Five staffs were raised into the air. Five beams of colorful magic shot from them and created a rainbow hurricane that swirled around the sky of the World. Every head were looking up in amazement, and hearing the horrible, disjointed symphony that filled the air. Nobody had ever heard of this.

Suddenly, a piece of the ground flew out. An arm shot out of the hole. The owner of the arm pulled itself out. Mace and Otto couldn't believe their eyes.

It was the shape of a Koopa, but it wasn't a Koopa. Its head was covered in grime and dirt. It had no eyes, only sockets. Its arms were made entirely of bones.

More and more of these creatures crawled out of the ground, before Mace realized what they were. They were Koopas, or at least they used to be. When they died, they were taken to be buried in World Eight, where their dry bones would be resurrected as an army of decaying corpses.

Mace vomited.


	20. Chapter 18

"Charge!" Otto yelled. The Koopa army gave a huge battle cry, as they advanced upon the undead army. They attacked the skeletons standing at the edge of the crowd. Bones were flying everywhere.

"Mace, help me!" Otto punched the skull off a resurrected Fire Brother. It snapped right off and bounced for two meters before cracking in half.

Mace wiped some emesis off his chin, and ran to his friend's side. He tackled a skeleton that was sneaking to Otto's back. They rolled a short distance. Mace and the creature's skull were face to face. Mace could smell the stench of being buried for years before being pulled out of the dirt abruptly to fight in a war. Mace ripped its legs and arms off. The limbless zombie wriggled around, unable to do anything.

"Thanks," Otto said.

Mace got up and looked around. It appeared that they were winning. Dismantled bones lay scattered around the pools of lava. There didn't seem to be a single Koopa harmed. It was almost as if the corpses weren't trying.

Mace looked at the five Koopalings. Despite their many losses in soldiers, they did not seem to be perturbed in the slightest. Then, Ludwig stood up once more. His younger siblings followed. They waved their staffs. More rainbows shot out of the orbs at the end of their staffs and joined the colors in the sky, and more horrible music filled the air.

Suddenly, there were many clanking noises around the battlefield. Right in front of Mace's eyes, the skeleton he had just dismembered stood up. Its legs had been pulled by magic back to the torso and they connected at the joint. The two arms slid across the ground and connected itself back to the body as well. The zombie had come back to life.

Mace looked at Otto, who was just realizing the same thing, as two halves of a head fused back together and leaped back onto the neck, where it belong. Many Koopas screamed in terror.

Then, the skeletons really started to attack. They demonstrated excellent strength and speed for things that had been dead for a long time now, as they tracked the first Koopa they sensed, and hunted them down. Many Koopas were decapitated. Some retracted back into their shells, but this only allowed the zombies to pick them up and throw them into one of the lava pits.

The huge Chain Chomp was getting taken down. More and more zombies threw themselves onto it and attacked its big metal head. The Chomp shook and bucked them off, but more just climbed on. Eventually, the beast exhausted its energy and fell unconscious into a lava pool.

"I'm going to fight over there," Otto said. Mace didn't say anything. Otto grabbed a hammer out of his hammer bag and ran.

Mace couldn't move. He was frozen at the sight of what was happening around him. He had seen many Koopas die on the way here, but he had never before witnessed the raw massacre that was happening around him. Everywhere, Koopas were dying in ways he never wanted to think about. Dead Paratroopas were raining from the sky, after being hit by the undead Paratroopas. Miniature earthquakes happened, from the giant Koopas wrestling with World Four's skeletons. Mace remembered his old life, his old station. Maybe it would have been best if he had just stayed there.

"Hey kid," a voice said. Mace looked around for the speaker, but couldn't find it.

"Down here."

Mace looked down. It was the fire-flower. "I know what you're thinking. You think it would have been better if you had stayed at your station in World Two and never went on this rebellious mission." The flower looked angry. Sparks flew around its petals. "Well let me ask you this. Do you want to be in your desert right now? Bored to the point of insanity?"

Mace knew the answer was no, but he was still discouraged.

"Now I know what you're thinking now. All your comrades are dying around you, getting killed, and you think it's all your fault. But these people would have gotten killed in worse ways by Mario, if you didn't go on this mission and defeat him? Now, the people that have died while fighting for a good cause, and not murdered by Mario because they were standing in the way. There's still hope for them, if you would lead them in their time of trouble."

Mace smiled in agreement. He nodded to the flower.

"Go fight, kid," the flower said. "It's never hopeless." There was suddenly a flash of fear in the flower's eyes. "... um, you might want to turn around."

Mace snapped back to reality. He felt a clammy hand grab his right arm, and another his left. Two more zombies were at his legs. Mace snapped back into reality. Four zombies were holding him up and moving him. Mace turned his head to see a sideways river of burning lava.

_Oh no_, he thought. He turned his head the other way to find that the fire flower had disappeared. He jerked one foot up and managed to break off the arm of one of the zombies that was carrying him. The arm began to vibrate as if it was trying to connect with the corpse's shoulder again, so Mace swung his leg and sent the arm flying.

* * *

A bone zipped over Otto's head and made a small scratch on his helmet. He wasn't sure if it was a zombie's bone, or that of a Koopa, but he whipped a rapidly spinning hammer in the general direction that it came from anyways.

Then, he realized that the hammer was twirling towards Mace, who was about to get thrown in a lava river.

"Mace!" He shouted. The hammer flew over Mace's head, and over the lava river. Otto and Mace both watched it turn in mid-air like a boomerang and finally hit a target on the tank. The blunt part of the hammer's head slammed directly into Prince Roy's head.

"Oh," he grunted. He lowered his staff to rub his swollen head.

Suddenly, the four zombies that had captured Mace relaxed their grips. Mace dropped onto the igneous rock floor. He got up, and ran to Otto.

"Why did they release you?" Otto asked. The four zombies were standing listlessly. He looked around.

Then, Otto realized what was going on. While Prince Roy was rubbing his head, about one fifth of the undead army stopped what they were doing as if they were paralyzed. Roy finally raised his staff when his bratty younger sister poked him angrily. The army began to work as a whole again.

"The Koopalings are controlling the army!" Otto turned, but once again, Mace had disappeared. Mace was running up a drawbridge to the Airship Fortress.

Otto yelled to the rebels. "Attack the Bosses! They are controlling the undead soldiers!"

The rebels obeyed. They swarmed the tank. The five siblings' poker faces were gone now, and was replaced by looks of panic. They fired Bullets randomly from the two guns, but it did nothing, as the Koopas simply ran in the areas where the gun couldn't hit. Several of them jumped onto the throne and had a huge brawl with the Bosses. In the end, the Koopas scattered, with the Bosses' staffs. All the zombies fell apart for good.

"Fire!" The scream came from the parked Airship. A Banzai missile was shot from a cannon. It homed onto the tank. The nasally screams of the five Bosses were ended when the missile hit, created a huge fiery explosion. Planks of charred wood were tossed into the air. A metal gun fell onto the ground, making a loud clanking sound. The tank and the Bosses were destroyed.

There was silence around the rebel army. They had won this battle, but they had lost so many. Some weren't sure if this was what they signed up for. Many had lost their friends and loved ones.

Suddenly, another Banzai was shot from the cannon, this time towards higher up on the volcano. There was another explosion, which caused the ground to rumble for a couple of seconds.

Mace ran back from the Airship. "Let's go."

Otto blinked. "Go where."

"To Bowser's Castle. I just shot a hole in it, so we can get in."

"Oh yeah," Otto had forgotten that before they were free, they still had to face Bowser. "Should we take some soldiers with us?"

"No. We should let them stay here for a while. You know, to calm down after the huge battle."

"Oh."

Mace began the trek up the active volcano. He walked in between the rivers of lava that leaked from the volcano's top.

After a moment's hesitation, Otto followed.

* * *

Bowser's Castle was nothing that they had imagined it to be. It was at least twenty times as big as one of the Bosses' Castles. While a Bosses' Castle had two stories, both square shaped, Bowser's had towers and smaller Castles built into the main building. There were more Bowser flags than either of them could count. From far away, it looked more like a small city than a single building. There was a smoldering hole on the front wall.

Mace jumped in. Otto limped up, huffing and puffing. They had just walked up a mountain, at extreme heats. Somehow, Mace didn't look the bit flustered.

_I guess that's because Mace doesn't have to lug this bag of hammers everywhere_, Otto thought. He painfully climbed in afterwards.

It was a maze inside. A labyrinth of black stone halls. It was lit by small lanterns that were hung around in certain places.

Mace and Otto walked in cautiously. They knew how enthusiastic Bowser was with traps. For some reason, there didn't seem to be any traps here.

Mace noticed a block with openings on four sided sticking out of a wall. It seemed like the base of another one of those chains of fire. Curiously, it wasn't turned on.

Suddenly, the floor beneath them broke apart. The two of them were sent screaming.


	21. Chapter 19

Mace and Otto crashed into the floor.

The twosome looked around. They were in a very spacious room. Almost immediately, they noticed important things. Firstly, there were two main "islands" in the room, separated by a pool of lava about five metres below. Secondly, there was a sturdy-looking bridge connecting the two parts of the room. Thirdly, there was a small window at the top of the room, near the ceiling. Fourth of all, a large cage hung from the ceiling, containing none other than Princess Peach. Fifth of all, there was a large throne that appeared to be the made of bones. But the most important thing in the entire room was Bowser.

Bowser was a mutant Koopa that had a spiked green shell, viciously sharp claws, and a wild mane of dark, red hair. He wore two spiked bracelets on each wrist and had thick, muscular arms. His mouth was lined with sharp teeth.

"Well, well. Look who came to visit." the King said smugly.

"Do you know why we're here? We have already killed all of your children, and now we're here to kill you, as well!"

"Hmph. I should have known that those incompetent Koopalings would die, sooner or later." Bowser grumbled.

"We also killed Bowser Jr." Now, strictly speaking, this wasn't true, but Bowser Jr was dead anyway, so he wasn't around to challenge that statement.

"What? Curse you! I was about to have a normal lunchtime for once and you two come here and tell me that all my kids are dead. Well, guess what? I forgot to eat breakfast today, so I'm feeling extra mean and extra hungry. When I'm done with you, you'll be my afternoon snack!"

With that, Bowser attacked the two unprepared Koopa Troopas.

He commenced the battle with his devastating tackle. He launched himself from his throne at the space above the Koopas' heads and then changed direction when he was directly over them. Otto and Mace barely managed to dodge as Bowser smashed, back-first onto the spot they were previously standing.

"Take this!" Otto yelled at the top of his lungs. He flung three of his hammers at the deformed Koopa. The King sidestepped the barrage easily. Behind him, the hammers created a triangle figure as they dented three different spots on the stone wall.

"Ha! Too easy!" Bowser countered by slashing at them with his claws. Mace dodged by ducking and rolling to the left, where an unattended frying pan with a fried egg lay on the arm of the chair.

Otto was not so lucky. Bowser's claws connected with his armoured chest and he was sent flying into a wall.

"Ohhh..." Otto could see stars, despite the fact that he had a helmet, which made no sense whatsoever, since helmets were supposed to protect the cranium from all damage. Not only this, but the three were fighting _indoors_.

Bowser advanced on the fallen Hammer Bro. Suddenly, Mace came out from behind, the frying pan in hand, and smacked Bowser in the head. Bowser stumbled back as he cried out, not from the pain, but from surprise. A squashed Yoshi omelet covered the back of Bowser's head.

"Hey! That was for my lunch! You'll pay for that!" Bowser vowed, and started walking towards Mace angrily. He took in a deep breath.

"Mace! Look out for his flame-breath!" Otto called desperately.

Mace took his advice and darted underneath Bowser's legs a millisecond before the withering flames were unleashed. He quickly ran to Otto.

"What are we going to do? He's way too powerful! There's no way we'll be able to defeat him! There _must_ be some way to defeat this monster." Otto said to Mace.

"I don't know! There should be a way, but he's keeping us too distracted to find it."

"Well, think about it later, 'cause here he comes!"

Bowser ran at them. Otto pulled out some more hammers and threw it at them as Mace, still holding the pan, jumped out of the way and stuck his leg out.

Bowser, disoriented by the hammers and unable to stop, tripped over Mace's extended foot and fell, headlong, towards Otto. Otto ducked.

Thud! The Koopa King smashed headfirst into the wall, and made a hole the size of Texas.

"Urgghh..." Bowser got up. "You know what? I've had enough of you guys. It's time to really heat things up!"

Suddenly, something strange happened. It was almost as if time had slowed down for a moment. During this strange event, Otto thought he saw, out of the corner of his eye, something glowing hit the Koopa King from the side. The object, if it wasn't a hallucination, apparently caused Bowser to grow stronger. The Koopa suddenly grew larger and larger, until he was almost three times his original size, or about ten meters tall.

Bowser roared. He shot fireballs at the frightened Koopas. This forced Mace to act. There was no possible way to get both Otto and himself out of the way in time, so he decided to divert it. He flung the frying pan at the incoming missiles and ducked and covered his eyes.

The result of the collision was both deafening and blinding. The remnants of the cooking tool clattered to the ground. On the handle of the extremely burned piece of metal, unless you were temporarily blinded you could clearly read: "Not for use in an open flame. Failure to follow these directions will result in spontaneous combustion."

The frying pan did exactly that.

* * *

While the combatants were recovering their vision, Mace, who had smartly covered his eyes, saw something important.

"Otto, listen to me," he whispered. "I know you probably can't see right now, but here is the plan..."

A few seconds later, the two blinded Koopas had fully recovered their vision. The battle recommenced.

Mace edged around the giant Bowser. Otto was busy distracting the mutant Koopa. His target was the ax in the corner of the room. If they could get that weapon, they might be able to finally end this desperate fight.

"Hey, brainless! Over here!" Otto yelled.

"Rrrrrr..." Bowser growled. He slowly moved towards the bait and each threatening step shook the room.

Mace took advantage of the momentary distraction. He sprinted to the ax. The ax looked like it was stuck welded into the ground. _Well, that stinks, but I might as well give it a try_.

He pulled.

A huge tremor shook the room, even worse than the ones Bowser had been causing. Bowser looked up.

"You fools! You've just activated the collapsing bridge!"

For once, it seemed that he wasn't lying. True to his word, the walls shook as if an earthquake had struck the castle. Then, it happened.

In the middle of the room, where the bridge Bowser was standing on fell apart and he fell into the seething orange liquid.

"Aarrghh!" came the cry of the dying King.

Bowser was being consumed alive. The lava seemed to eat him up as if he was a cookie being devoured by a monster.

Then, with one last cry to the heavens, the enormous body sunk beneath the surface of the magma and disappeared, leaving nothing that would suggest that Bowser lay, dead at the bottom of the lake of lava.

* * *

Mace and Otto were about to celebrate when they heard someone clapping.

They both spun around at the exact same time, and spotted the newcomer. It was an old Koopa that wore blue robes and held a magic wand in his fist. The Magikoopa was levitating on a magic broomstick. He didn't look to happy, even though he was clapping for them.

"Well, done. What a great battle. Who are you? And what have you done with the Koopa King?" he said, despite the fact that he already knew.

"Oh, nothing much. He just decided to take a swim." Otto replied, even though he knew it was a rhetorical question.

"What? Don't you know what that lava can do to a healthy mutant?"

"Of course! Do you think we were born yesterday?" Mace snapped. "Actually, even if we _were_ born yesterday, we'd still know what that lava can do."

"Are you serious? What the heck do you think you're accomplishing, doing away with your ruler?"

"Nothing. Just a little word called freedom."

"Do you know who I am?"

"No. Should we?"

The Magikoopa ignored the question. "I am Kamek, the greatest, and most powerful Magikoopa in history!"

Otto yawned. It was his turn to reply. "Yeah, and I'm the Queen of England."

"Shut up! It was I who was the father of Bowser. It was I who raised the little freak so that he would eventually become the King of the Koopas. It was I who taught him how to rule a kingdom with his iron fist. It was I who started a movement to bring down the old Kingdom and make way for a new one. It was I who-"

"Yeah, yeah, we get the point."

But little did Mace and Otto know that the wicked Magikoopa was simply trying to distract them from his true intents.

Kamek stared at the Koopas, defiance on their faces. "You really don't know who you're dealing with, do you?"

The Koopas shook their heads.

"Well, guess what? Because you were so ignorant that you believed I couldn't cast spells without speaking, you didn't stop me from casting the necromancy spell that would resurrect my son, so he can finish you two off, and rule once again! Ha!" he said with triumph as he finished the spell he had been casting with a wave of his wand.

Bowser, normal-sized again, came out of the lava as a skeleton and grabbed the two with his clawed hands. Then, he turned towards the pool of lava that surrounded the chamber. The two clutched at each other as they were raised above the liquid of doom.

"Well, looks like this is a goodbye!" Otto said. "It's been nice knowing you!"

Just then, a window was smashed open. Furaido flew out of the shattered glass.


	22. Chapter 20

"Here I come!"

Furaido dived towards the two Koopa Troopas, sword in hand. The sword gleamed. It had an engraving of three triangles arranged to form a fourth.

Bowser had recovered from his surprise and dropped Mace and Otto.

Furaido grabbed them and lifted them to safety a split second before they would have been incinerated like Bowser. He set them down on the stone "island" where the throne was. Kamek and Bowser glared at Furaido from the other side of the room.

"Are you mental? No offense, Mace," he quickly corrected himself. "What were you thinking when you went in here without me to watch your back? And why didn't you get this sword from those Boos in the first place?"

Kamek reactivated the bridge and Bowser roared with anger and began to advance towards them. "It's not safe. Giga Bowser can fall into lava but not get hurt," Furaido told the others.

Furaido flew at him and slash at the undead Koopa with all his might. The sword, despite being of extremely high quality and effectiveness, and also enchanted to be unbreakable, it simply bounced off of the ribcage of Bowser without making a dent. Furaido was thrown back a split-second before Bowser, unfazed by his assault, nearly impaled him with his claws, now even sharper than before the lava had melted off anything on the claws.

Furaido changed tactics. He went after the Magikoopa, who was now trying to cast spells that would make Bowser even more deadly, instead. He swung the sword at Kamek's head. The wizard ducked, and the blade sored harmlessly over his head, slicing off the top off his hat.

"Take this!" Kamek launched three rings of fire at the Paratroopa. Furaido evaded the attack by dive-bombing, blade pointing to the ground.

While the two had been dueling, Bowser had tried to get into the battle, too. So, he was directly below Furaido at that moment and was vulnerable to and completely unsuspecting of aerial attacks.

Crack! The sword made contact with Bowser exposed skull. Before, the sword was unable to pierce the bone, but with both gravity _and_ Furaido's weight, the blade gained enough force for the point to shatter the weak spot of Bowser's skull. The force of the impact sent shards of sharp bone flying in all directions, including up into the air. The Magikoopa was bombarded with the bone fragments, stunning him enough to force him to drop his wand.

Without the caster of the spell possessing a wand, the necromancy spell was abruptly ended, and Dry Bowser collapsed, a pile of bones once more. Mace, who had been watching for some time, decided to try and help and he dashed in underneath Kamek and deftly caught the free-falling wand.

Furaido flew back up, swinging the sword at the Magikoopa, but the wizard recovered in time and dodged upwards, the end of the blade catching the broom with its edge and slicing it in two. Without the levitating broomstick or his wand, Kamek fell from the air and tumbled to the edge of the pool of lava. Otto casually kicked him and he plunged into the lake.

They had won.

Or, at least they thought so.

"Hey, why is the wand acting up?" Mace asked, struggling to keep the wand from escaping, but being unsuccessful.

"No!" Furaido and Otto cried as the wand flew up seemingly by itself and launched a burst of magic at the pile of bones. Then, the wand clattered to the floor. Mace picked it up and put it inside his shell, just in case.

Before the startled Koopas' eyes, the broken bones regenerated and reassembled itself. Then, the skeleton began to regrow its flesh and skin.

"Oh no! What just happened?" Furaido asked, without caring whether he got an answer or not. "Never mind that. More importantly, how do we stop this?"

"You don't! Blahrrrg!" Bowser had completely regenerated and now appeared to be growing in size. The lava in the room appeared to be disappearing at the same rate as Bowser's apparent growth spurt.

The three Koopa Troopas backed away as the Koopa King stopped growing when his head reached the ceiling. There was no more lava left, and strangely, Kamek was nowhere to be seen. Bowser appeared to be glowing with power.

Otto reached for the lever. It wouldn't budge.

"Kamek must have busted the mechanism when he re-activated the bridge. Besides, dropping him in the hole where the lava was won't help us. Here. Let me help." Furaido explained and then sliced the huge ax-shaped handle of the lever off.

Otto hefted the makeshift weapon cautiously. It was a bit heavier than he expected, but he was still strong enough to fling it across the room and create a very large hole in the wall.

Bowser roared. "What did you feed me? I feel great!"

Otto chose that moment to act. He chucked the heavy ax at the Giga Bowser. The creature couldn't move fast enough, so it was hit, but the ax was grabbed and flung back at them.

The ax smashed into the wall and created a gap the size of Russia. Mace's mouth dropped open. Then he remembered the wand. He pulled it out.

"Here goes nothing!" he said as he waved the wand and pointed at Furaido.

"Wait! You can't use that! You don't know how yet!" Furaido said urgently.

A burst of magic flew out of the tip and hit him. At first, nothing happened. But then, Furaido started increasing in size dramatically. So did the sword.

When his transformation was done, there stood _two_ giants in the room: Giga Bowser and a giant Furaido.

The two giants squared off.

* * *

Furaido was furious. Mace had, once again, acted without any consultation. _Still_, he thought, _this may be for the best. He might be able to transform me back, so it doesn't matter right now. What does matter is pulverizing Bowser!_

Furaido attacked first. He punched out with his free hand. Giga Bowser blocked it with his arm and then grabbed it and twisted it. The pain was excruciating. _Since when did Bow-Wow know karate, anyways? _Furaido freed it by kicking Bowser in the leg. Bowser released his arm and grabbed his foot, hopping up and down in his uninjured one. Each hop shook the room. And since Giga Bowser hopped many times, it shook the room quite a lot.

Then, Giga Bowser suddenly stopped hopping up and down and took in a deep breath. The flame that came out was impossible to dodge, because the giant size of Furaido's body slowed down his movements a lot.

The flame forced Furaido back into the wall. The roof shook.

Furaido was desperate now. He grabbed the sword from the ground and stabbed without thinking. Just before the tip plunged into the unsuspecting Giga Bowser, the giant spell faded away and Furaido shrunk back to his normal size.

"Mace! Darn it, now we have to kill him some other way!"

"Whoops. Now that I think about it, magical education in England doesn't seem so unappealing anymore."

Just then, Giga Bowser punched at them. The trio rolled out of the way, but the fist kept going and smash into the wall hard. The wall shuddered, and then the already weakened roof caved in.

"Aaaaahhhh!" the Princess screamed from her perch above them.

"Get out of here!" Mace yelled.

He shoved the other two back into the entrance to the throne room and they tumbled into the hall just before the roof collided with the ground.

Thud!

Otto looked at the wreckage. There was no way that Bowser could have survived that. He would be squashed as flat as a piece of origami with that weight stuck on him.

Then, he noticed an object in the top part of the rubble. A cage.

The Princess was unconscious, but otherwise OK. Furaido cut open the already weakened bars and grabbed her. He slung her over his shoulder for easy transportation.

"Let's go."

The speaker was Mace. He was holding the wand of Kamek. He waved it once, and he and Otto started levitating.

"Let's go, already. We've got a Kingdom to rebuild."


	23. Epilogue I

A lone man walked into the castle. The mustachioed mercenary named Mario looked around.

The castle once ruled by the brutal King Bowser was completely, utterly empty. No Koopas or Dry Bones or anything jumped out and attacked him. There was absolutely NOTHING. Not even a single ?-Block was in sight.

Mario had already died once while traversing World Five. He had no intention of humiliating himself by dying again. So, he was extremely cautious, because even though all was silent, sometimes silence was the dangerous kind, the kind that precedes an ambush, or the end of the Worlds.

Creak... A door creaked open.

Mario jumped at the sound and put his fist through a brick that was positioned right above him. He waited. Nothing jumped out, crying "Blahrrg!" Nothing came out to kill him.

Then, Mario examined the door. It was the door to the throne room, where Bowser was.

He walked slowly through the door and got ready to fight.

When he got to the throne room, he was met with a strange sight.

It was _empty_. There was, literally, nothing. The throne itself was missing, too. He had thought that the halls were creepy, but this was even worse. The roof of the building appeared to have collapsed, and it filled the hole that used to be at the bottom of the room.

Then, something white caught his eye. It was a note. Mario walked over to the piece of paper and picked it up.

The paper seemed as if it was fashioned to look like a Toad. The handwriting on the note was messy, as if the person who had written it had to go somewhere in a hurry.

The note read: "Thank you Mario, but your princess is in another castle!"


	24. Epilogue II

"That's it, just a little to the right," Otto said through a megaphone. He was supervising the construction of the New Castle, now near completion. A brick was being lowered to the top of a watch tower that was at the corner of the wall surrounding it. The Castle was located in World One, to improve relations with the Mushroom Kingdom.

Princess Peach was so grateful for her rescue that she wanted to make an alliance with the Koopas. The New Castle was being worked on by Toads and Koopas alike. They decided to make peace when it was revealed that the Mushroom Kingdom's government didn't actually hire Mario as a mercenary, and that Mario decided to go rescue Princess Peach to be heroic.

Otto hovered around the construction site on a smiling cloud. It was really refreshing for everyone. After generations of slavery and their rebellion they all came together co-operate on a less serious project. Hammer Brothers were using their hammers as tools, instead of weapons. The giant Koopas carried the larger bricks on their backs.

The Castle was currently around twice the size of Bowser's old Castle. However, instead of having various towers and cubes all joined together like a small city, the New Castle was made of a pyramid, with eight levels. Each level represented a certain one of the Worlds, and their main focus, after the Castle is finished, would be to make the Worlds habitable again, by building houses, and starting an economy.

Otto found Mace working at the bottom level. He floated his cloud down to him. Mace was carefully placing a cornerstone, using Kamek's magic staff. Strangely, he was the only one who could get it to work. Being just one, inexperienced person, he wasn't able to perform nearly the same level of tricks the Bosses and Kamek could, and was now only able to use the rainbow magic to move things around.

"Funny isn't it? How that little staff was able to keep Bowser and his children alive for such an abnormally long time."

"Yeah," Mace said. They hadn't told anyone else how powerful the magic was, in fear that they would try to steal the staff. Since the journey, Mace had gained a sense of self-esteem and pride for his own talents, although mostly he was filled with unbearable happiness at all the changes to the Koopas' ways of life.

A bugle sounded above everyone looked up to see a group of Paratroopas fly towards the site. It was led by Furaido.

"Hey, check this out!" Furaido and his gang were carrying a flagpole. They zipped up to the top stone of the pyramid. With grunts of strength, they inserted the flag into place. It was a very windy day, and the flag was blown out to reveal a large green shell in a black background.

All the workers took a moment to look up at the new flag of the New Kingdom. They were silent for a moment, before breaking into applause and loud cheers of pride. Within that black cloth, there had been woven the memories of all the hardships, the victories and the sacrifices that the Koopa race had experienced during their entire existence. Otto felt a single teardrop slowly slide down his cheek.

Mace sobbed out loud.


	25. About the Authors

**JIMMY ZHAO** is a great dancer who lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario. In his spare time, Jimmy enjoys mixing sound effects on Audacity, animated animations on Pivot, and putting it together on Movie Maker. He really enjoyed the experience of writing a novel with a friend, and plans on working on other projects later.

Jimmy sometimes wishes, among other things, that he had moved to Richmond Hill _after_ he graduated from his old school in Toronto. Not only did he miss a lot of school events, such as a role in a school musical, various electrical workshops, and getting a Year _DVD_, but mostly he didn't get to raise geckos. Geckos, god darn it.

For _Green Shells_, Jimmy worked with his friend Sherman. The original concept for this novel was Jimmy's, and he also wrote the Prologue, Chapters 1, 2, 6, 13, 15, 17, 18, and the second Epilogue, as well as his own About the Author section. He collaborated with Sherman to write Chapters 3, 4, 9 and 10.

* * *

**SHERMAN YING** is an average video game "nerd" who lives in Richmond Hill, Ontario, and is as normal as everyone else in Richmond Hill, except for his habit of playing video games. He enjoys all of the things a normal person would enjoy, including video games (duh), but also enjoys putting random references to other things in his works.

Sherman also believes that it should be against the law to inhibit one's creativity, and therefore supports this opinion by being creative. For example, in his spare time, he likes to "edit" his things and make them better. One of his most important wishes is that he wasn't so unlucky (in terms of being injured by random people).

He is the second author of this story. He expanded on the plot line, created all the graphics you see here, including the formatting style, and has written all of Chapters 5, 7, 8, 11, 12, 14, 16, 19, 20, and Epilogue (I), and collaborated with his co-author to write Chapter 3, 4, 9, and 10.

* * *

Fun. :)


End file.
